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STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 



PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

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SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 



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PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

OF THE SIXTEENTH AND 
SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 

BY 

JOHN SMITH HARRISON 




THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, Agents 
LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. 

1903 

All rights reserved 



THE LIBRARY OF 
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Two Copies Received. 

SEP 10 1903 

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PREFACE 

This essay was presented as a dissertation 
for the doctorate in Columbia University. It 
attempts to explain the nature of the influence 
of Platonism upon English poetry of the six- 
teenth and seventeenth centuries, exclusive of 
the drama. Its method is purely critical. It 
has not attempted to treat the subject from the 
standpoint of the individual poet, but has tried 
to interpret the whole body of English poetry 
of the period under survey as an integral out- 
put of the spiritual thought and life of the 
time. 

In its interpretation of this body of poetry 
the essay has aimed to see Platonism in its 
true historical perspective, as it must have been 
understood by the poets, either as a system of 
philosophic thought held consciously in the 
mind, or as a more intimate possession of the 
spirit in its outlook upon life. The idea of 
Platonism which these poets had was that 
which Ficino had made known to Italy of the 



viii PREFACE 

fifteenth century, and from Italy to the rest of 
Europe. Ficino saw Plato through two more 
or less refracting media. To him Plato was 
the "divine Plato," the importance of whose 
work lay in its subtle affinity for . the forms 
of Christian thought. He thus Christianized 
Plato's philosophy. But this body of thought 
was that peculiar product resulting from the 
study of Plato's "Dialogues" in the light of 
what latter-day criticism has named Neo-plato- 
nism, or that new form of Platonic philosophy 
which is expounded in the " Enneads " of Ploti- 
nus. But more than this. Ficino endeavored 
to reform the practice of love by the applica- 
tion of the Platonic doctrine of love and beauty 
to the lover's passion. From his " Commenta- 
rium in Convivium," which he translated into 
Italian, originate the various discussions of love 
and beauty from the Platonic standpoint which 
were carried on in dialogues and manuals of 
court etiquette throughout the sixteenth cen- 
tury. In this essay, consequently, reference 
has been made to Ficino's " Commentarium " 
on the points involved in the theory of love 
and beauty. The translations have been made 
directly from the Latin version of the com- 
mentary. On the more metaphysical side of 
Platonism the " Enneads " of Plotinus have 



PREFACE ix 

been accepted as representative. The transla- 
tion on page 77 is taken from Mr. Bigg's "Neo- 
Platonism," and those on pages 153, 154, 155 
are from Thomas Taylor's translation noted 
in the bibliography. In interpreting the " En- 
neads " I have accepted the explanation of his 
system by Mr. Whittaker in " The Neo-Platon- 
ists." All the quotations from Plato's "Dia- 
logues" are from Jowett's translation. In 
quoting from the poets the texts of the editions 
noted in the bibliography have been followed 
in details of spelling, punctuation, and the 
like. 

In the preparation of the work hardly any- 
thing of a critical nature was found serviceable. 
In the notes to the works of the individual 
poets several detached references are to be 
gratefully mentioned, but no general apprecia- 
tion of the part Platonism played in the work 
of the English poets was at hand. Mr. Fletch- 
er's article on the " Precieuses at the Court of 
Charles I," in the second number of the "Jour- 
nal of Comparative Literature," appeared after 
this essay had gone to the printer. 

I should like to acknowledge my thanks to 
Mr. W. H. Heck for his service of transcrip- 
tion in the British Museum Library and to 
Miss M. P. Conant for a similar kindness in 
research work in the Harvard College Library. 



x PREFACE 

To Professor George Edward Woodberry I am 
most deeply grateful for innumerable sugges- 
tions and invaluable advice. The work was 
undertaken at his suggestion, and throughout 
the past two years has progressed under his 
kindly criticism. But the help and inspiration 
which I have received from him antedate the 
inception of the essay, extending back to the 
earlier days of undergraduate life. The work 
is thus inseparably connected with the training 
in the study of literature which he has given, 
and his help in its completion is only an episode 
in a long series of kindnesses which he has 
been ever willing to show. 

Orange, N.J., 
June 1, 1903. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

Ideals of Christian Virtues 1 

I. Holiness ....... 1 

II. Temperance 12 

III. Chastity 30 

CHAPTER II 

Theory of Love 67 

I. Heavenly Love .67 

II. Earthly Love 104 

CHAPTER III 

God and the Soul 167 

I. Nature of God 167 

II. Nature of the Soul 186 

III. Eternity of the Soul and of Matter . 202 

Bibliography 223 

Index 229 

xi 



PLATONISM IN ENGLISH 
POETRY 

CHAPTER I 
Ideals of Christian Virtues 

i. HOLINESS 

The fundamental doctrine of Platonism as 
it was understood throughout the period of the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was the 
reality of a heavenly beauty known in and by 
the soul, as contrasted with an earthly beauty 
known only to the sense. In this the Christian 
philosophic mind found the basis for its concep- 
tion of holiness. Christian discipline and Pla- 
tonic idealism blended in the " Faerie Queene " 
in the legend of the Red Cross Knight. 

The underlying idea taught by Spenser in 
the first book is that holiness is a state of the 
soul in which wisdom or truth can be seen and 
loved in and for its beauty. In the allegorical 
scheme of his work Una stands for the Platonic 

B 1 



2 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

wisdom, <ro(j>ia, or aperrj, and a sight of her in 
her native beauty constitutes the happy ending 
of the many struggles and perplexities that the 
Red Cross Knight experiences in his pursuit of 
holiness. The identification of Una with the 
Platonic idea of truth or wisdom is not merely 
a matter of inference left for the reader to 
draw ; for Spenser himself is careful to inform 
us of the true nature of the part she plays in 
his allegory. Una is presented as teaching the 
satyrs truth and " trew sacred lore." (I. vi. 19 ; 
I. vi. 30.) When the lion, amazed at her sight, 
forgets his fierceness, Spenser comments : 

" O how can beautie maister the most strong, 
And simple truth subdue avenging wrong?" 

(I. iii. 6.) 

When Una summons Arthur to the rescue of 
the Red Cross Knight from the Giant and the 
Dragon, Spenser opens his canto with a reflec- 
tion on the guiding power of grace and truth 
amid the many perils of human life : 

" Ay me, how many perils doe enfold 
The righteous man, to make him daily fall? 
Were not, that heavenly grace doth him uphold, 
And stedfast truth acquite him out of all. 
Her love is firme, her care continually 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 3 

So oft as he through his owne foolish pride, 
Or weaknesse is to sin full bands made thrall." 

(I. viii. 1.) 

Here Arthur is meant by grace and Una by 
truth. In accordance with the same conception 
of Una's nature Satyrane is made to wonder 

" at her wisedome heavenly rare, 
Whose like in womens wit he never knew ; 

***** 
Thenceforth he kept her goodly company, 
And learnd her discipline of faith and veritie." 

(I. vi. 31.) 

Furthermore, she is represented as guiding the 
Red Cross Knight to Fidelia's school, where he 
is to taste her " heavenly learning," to hear the 
wisdom of her divine words, and to learn " ce- 
lestiall discipline." (I. x. 18.) In making these 
comments and in thus directing the course of 
the action of his poem Spenser presents in Una 
the personification of truth or wisdom. 

But he does more than this ; he presents her 
not only as wisdom, but as true beauty. Spen- 
ser is so thoroughly convinced of the truth 
of that fundamental idea of Platonic ethics, 
that truth and beauty are identical, that he 
shows their union in the character of Una, 



4 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

in whom, as her name signifies, they are one. 
Plato had taught that the highest beauty 
which the soul can know is wisdom, which, 
though invisible to sight, would inflame the 
hearts of men in an unwonted degree could 
there be a visible image of her. In his 
"Phsedrus" he had stated that "sight is the 
most piercing of our bodily senses ; though not 
by that is wisdom seen ; her loveliness would 
have been transporting if there had been a 
visible image of her." (250.) Convinced, as 
Spenser was, of the spiritual nature of the 
beauty of wisdom, he carefully avoids dwell- 
ing upon any detail of Una's physical beauty. 
The poetic form of allegory, through which his 
ideas were to be conveyed, required the personi- 
fication of truth, and the romantic character of 
chivalry demanded that his Knight should have 
a lady to protect. The progress of the action 
of the poem, moreover, made necessary some 
reference to the details of Una's form and fea- 
ture. (Cf. I. iii. 4-6; vi. 9.) But in no in- 
stance where the physical form of Una is 
brought to notice is there any trace of the 
poet's desire to concentrate attention upon 
her physical charms. In this respect Una 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 6 

stands distinctly apart from all his other 
heroines, and especially Belphoebe. And yet 
Spenser has taken the greatest care to show 
that the source of Una's influence over those 
that come into her presence lies in the power 
exerted by her beauty ; but this is the beauty 
of her whole nature, a penetrating radiance of 
light revealing the soul that is truly wise. 
Indeed, when Spenser has the best of oppor- 
tunities to describe Una, after she has laid aside 
the black stole that hides her features, he con- 
tents himself with a few lines, testifying only 
to their radiant brilliancy : 

" Her angels face 
As the great eye of heaven shyned bright, 
And made a sunshine in the shadie place." 

(I. iii. 4.) 

In other instances he directs our attention to 
the power which the mere sight of her has 
upon the beholder. Her beauty can tame the 
raging lion and turn a ravenous beast into a 
strong body-guard who finds his duty in the 
light of her fair eyes : 

" It fortuned out of the thickest wood 
A ramping Lyon rushed suddainly, 
Hunting full greedie after salvage blood ; 



6 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

Soone as the royall virgin he did spy, 
With gaping mouth at her ran greedily, 
To have attonce devour'd her tender corse : 
But to the pray when as he drew more ny, 
His bloudie rage asswaged with remorse, 
And with the sight amazd, forgat his furious forse." 

(I. iii. 5.) 

" The Lyon would not leave her desolate, 
***** 
From her faire eyes he tooke commaundement, 
And ever by her lookes conceived her intent." 

(I. iii. 9.) 

The wild-wood gods stand astonished at her 
beauty, and in their wonder pity her desolate 
condition. (I. vi. 9-12.) Old Sylvanus is 
smitten by a sight of her. In her presence he 
doubts the purity of his own Dryope's fair- 
ness ; sometimes he thinks her Venus, but then 
on further reflection he recalls that Venus 
never had so sober mood ; her image calls to 
mind — 

" His ancient love, and dearest Cyparisse, 

ijk t£ V V w* 

How fair he was, and yet not faire to this." 

(I. vi. 17.) 

To behold her lovely face the wood nymphs 
flock about and when they have seen it, they 
flee away in envious fear, lest the contrast of 



IDEALS OE CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 7 

its beauty may disgrace their own. (I. vi. 18.) 
By these dramatic touches Spenser very skil- 
fully suggests to his reader the high nature of 
Una's beauty. It has a power to win its way 
upon the brute creation, and it has a severity 
and radiance that set it off from the beauty of 
physical form possessed by the wood nymphs 
and even by the great goddess of love, Venus. 
The most important consideration that bears 
upon the question of Una's beauty is found in 
the method which Spenser has used to indicate 
how the Red Cross Knight attains to a knowl- 
edge of it. One reason why the people of the 
wood, the nymphs, the fauns, and the satyrs, 
were permitted to see the celestial beauty of 
Una unveiled lay in the fact that through 
their experiences a means was provided by the 
poet to quicken the imagination into a sense 
of its pure nature. But the Knight, though 
he had journeyed with her throughout a great 
portion of her " wearie journey," had never 
been able to see her face in its native splendor, 
hidden, as it had always been, from his sight 
by the black veil which Una wore. The 
deep conceit which Spenser here uses points 
in the direction of Platonism ; for there it 



8 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

was taught that wisdom could be seen only 
by the soul. This is a fundamental truth, 
present everywhere in Plato, in the vision of 
beauty that rises before the mind at the end 
of the dialectic of the "Symposium," in the 
species of divine fury that accompanies the 
recollection of the ideal world in the presence 
of a beautiful object, as analyzed in the 
" Phsedrus," and in the " Hymn of the Dia- 
lectic " in the " Republic " by which the soul 
rises to a sight of the good. (VII. 532.) In 
the " Phsedo " the function of philosophy is 
explained to lie in the exercise by the soul of 
this power of spiritual contemplation of true 
existence. (82, 83.) In Spenser this concep- 
tion is further illustrated by the part which 
the schooling, received by the Red Cross Knight 
on the Mount of Contemplation, played in the 
perfection of his mental vision. Up to the 
time when the Knight comes to the Mount 
he is, as the aged sire says, a " man of earth," 
and his spirit needs to be purified of all the 
grossness of sense. (I. x. 52.) When this has 
been accomplished, the Knight is prepared to 

" see the way, 
That never yet was seene of Faeries sonne." 

(I. x. 52.) 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 9 

While on this Mount he is initiated into a 
knowledge of the glories of the Heavenly 
Jerusalem, and through this experience he is 
made aware of the relative insignificance of 
that beauty which he had thought the great- 
est to be known on earth. He thus says to 
the aged man, Heavenly Contemplation, who 
has revealed this vision to him : 

" Till now, said then the knight, I weened well, 
That great Cleopolis, where I have beene, 
In which that fairest Faerie Queene doth dwell, 
The fairest Citie was, that might be seene ; 
And that bright towre all bnilt of christall cleene, 
Panthea, seemd the brightest thing, that was : 
But now by proof e all otherwise I weene ; 
For this great Citie that does far surpas, 
And this bright Angels towre quite dims that towre of 
glas." (I. x. 58.) 

With his soul filled with the radiance of this 
vision of beauty, his eyes dazed — 

" Through passing brightnesse, which did quite confound 
His feeble sence, and too exceeding shyne. 
So darke are earthly things compard to things divine — " 

(I. x. 67.) 

the Red Cross Knight descends from the Mount; 
and when after the completion of his labors he 
sees Una on the day of her betrothal, he won- 



10 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

ders at a beauty in her which he has never 
before seen. Una has now laid aside her black 
veil, and shines upon him in the native un- 
dimmed splendor of truth. 

" The blazing brightnesse of her beauties beame, 
And glorious light of her sunshyny face 
To tell, were as to strive against the streame. 
My ragged rimes are all too rude and bace, 
Her heavenly lineaments for to enchace. 
Ne wonder ; for her owne deare loved knight, 
All were she dayly with himselfe in place, 
Did wonder much at her celestiall sight : 
Oft had he seene her faire, but never so faire dight." 

(I. xii. 23.) 

The contribution of Platonism to the for- 
mation of the ideal of holiness can now be 
easily recognized. The discipline of the Red 
Cross Knight in the House of Holiness is two- 
fold. In the practice of the Christian graces 
— faith, hope, and charity — the Knight is per- 
fected in the way of the righteous life. He is 
a penitent seeking to cleanse his soul of the 
infection of sin. On the Mount of Heavenly 
Contemplation he exercises his soul in the con- 
templative vision of the eternal world. But the 
emphasis laid by Platonism upon the loveliness 
of that wisdom which is the object of contem- 
plation results in quickening the imagination 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 11 

and in stirring the soul to realize the principle 
in love. This is the exact nature of the ex- 
perience of the Red Cross Knight at the end 
of his journey. On the Mount of Heavenly 
Contemplation he has a desire to remain in the 
peaceful contemplation of heaven : 

" O let me not (quoth he) then turne againe 
Backe to the world, whose joyes so fruitlesse are ; 
But let me here for aye in peace remaine, 
Or streight way on that last long voyage fare, 
That nothing may my present hope empare." 

(I. x. 63.) 

But the aged sire, Heavenly Contemplation, 
reminds him of his duty to free Una's parents 
from the dragon. (I. x. 63.) Obedient but still 
purposing to return to the contemplative life 
(I. x. 64), the Knight descends; and in the 
performance of his duty he gains the reward 
that the contemplative life brings. " But he," 
says Plato, " whose initiation is recent, and who 
has been the spectator of many glories in the 
other world, is amazed when he sees any one hav- 
ing a godlike face or any bodily form which is 
the expression of divine beauty." (" Phsedrus," 
251.) Thus it is that the Red Cross Knight 

" Did wonder much at her celestiall sight." 

(I. xii. 23.) 



12 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

With that sight comes the one joy of his life 
after the many struggles experienced in the 
perfection of his soul in holiness. 

" And ever, when his eye did her behold, 
His heart did seeme to melt in pleasures manifold." 

(I. xii. 40.) 

II. TEMPERANCE 

The spiritual welfare of the soul was the 
prime object of importance to the Christian. 
Through the power of its doctrine of heavenly 
beauty Platonism had entered into the con- 
ception of this life considered in its heaven- 
ward aspect. It remained to show how it 
could explain the right manner of conduct for 
the soul in the presence of those strong pas- 
sions which were felt as the disturbing ele- 
ments of its inner welfare. In the Platonic 
system of morality there was a conception of 
temperance, crccxfypoo-vvr}, based upon an analysis 
of the soul sufficiently comprehensive to cover 
the entire scope of its activities ; in fact, tem- 
perance was there conceived as the necessary 
condition for the presence of any virtue in the 
soul. The vitality of this teaching in English 
poetry is found in the second book of Spenser's 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 13 

"Faerie Queene," celebrating the exploits of 
the knight Guy on, 

"In whom great rule of Temp'raunce goodly doth appeare." 

(Introd., stz. 5.) 

The adventures of Guyon, through the disci- 
pline of which he perfects himself in temper- 
ance, fall into two distinct groups. Up to the 
sixth book the conflicts in which he is concerned 
are those calculated to try his mastery of the 
angry impulses of his nature. After the sixth 
book his struggles record his proficiency in 
governing the sensual desires of appetite. This 
division is made in accordance with the analysis 
of the soul on which Plato bases his doctrine of 
temperance. Within the soul are three distinct 
principles, — one rational and two irrational. 
The irrational principles are, first, the irascible 
impulse of spirit (0f/*o'?) with which a man is 
angry and, second, the appetitive instinct the 
workings of which are manifested in all the sen- 
sual gratifications of the body, and in the love 
of wealth. The rational principle is that of 
reason by which a man learns truth. (" Repub- 
lic,'* IX. 580, 581.) Against this one rational 
principle the two irrational impulses are con- 
stantly insurgent, and temperance is that har- 



14 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

mony or order resulting in the soul when the 
rational principle rules and the two irrational 
principles are obedient to its sovereignty. 
"And would you not say," asks Socrates, 
" that he is temperate who has these same ele- 
ments in friendly harmony, in whom the one 
ruling principle of reason, and the two subject 
ones of spirit and desire are equally agreed that 
reason ought to rule, and do not rebel ? " 
("Republic," IV. 442.) 

The rule of right reason in Guyon over his 
angry impulses is recorded in three instances ; 
in each case the anger is aroused under varying 
conditions. The opening episode of the book 
presents Guyon checking the impetuous fury 
of his wrath when he learns that it has been 
aroused by a false presentation of the facts. 
Archimago, the deceitful enemy of truth, re- 
lated to Guyon how the Red Cross Knight had 
violated the purity of a maiden ; and the pre- 
tended maiden herself became a party to the 
lie. (II. i. 10, 11, 17.) When Guyon heard of 
this outrage he hastened to avenge the wrong. 

" He staid not lenger talke, but with fierce ire 
And zealous hast away is quickly gone 
To seeke that knight." (II. i. 13.) 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 15 

And yet he wondered how the Red Cross 
Knight could have done such a deed. He 
knew that he was a knight of honor and had 
won glory in his defence of Una. (II. i. 19.) 
He was quick, then, to restrain himself when 
about to charge upon the accused Knight, for 
on his shield he recognized the cross of his 
Lord. When he was on the point of clashing 
with his enemy, he 

" gan abace 
His threatned speare, as if some new mishap 
Had him betidde, or hidden daunger did entrap." 

(II. i. 26.) 

After an apology and an exchange of knightly 
courtesies with the Red Cross Knight he was 
able to 

" turne his earnest unto game, 
Through goodly handing and wise temperance." 

(II. i. 31.) 

The second encounter of Guyon with the 
forces of wrath is the struggle with Furor and 
his mother Occasion. (II. iv. 3-36.) He has 
now to try his strength in conquering wrath 
when it has an occasion to be aroused. The 
power with which he strives is described as 
a fury of great might, but so ill-governed by 



16 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

reason that in its blind passion its force is 
spent to no purpose. 

" And sure he was a man of mickle might, 
Had he had gouvernance, it well to guide : 
But when the franticke fit inflamd his spright, 
His force was vaine, and strooke more often wide, 
Then at the aymed marke which he had eide : 
And oft himselfe he chaunst to hurt unwares, 
Whilst reason blent through passion, nought descride, 
But as a blindfold Bull at randon fares, 
And where he hits, nought knowes, and whom he hurts 
nought cares." (II. iv. 7.) 

Guyon struggles with this madman and 
finally, after he has quieted the reviling tongue 
of Occasion, who urges her son, Furor, on to 
the conflict, he binds him with iron chains. 

" In his strong armes he stiff ely him embraste, 
Who him gainstriving, nought at all prevaild : 
For all his power was utterly defaste, 
And furious fits at earst quite weren quaild : 
Oft he re'nforst, and oft his forces fayld, 
Yet yield he would not, nor his rancour slacke. 
Then him to ground he cast, and rudely hayld, 
And both his hands fast bound behind his backe, 
And both his feet in fetters to an yron racke." 

(II. iv. 14.) 

The third trial of Guyon's reason is by a 
species of wrath so wilfully furious that it 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 17 

runs to seek an occasion for a quarrel, and 
finds no rest until it has succeeded. This type 
of irascible impulse is portrayed in Pyrochles. 
He delights in deeds of daring might, and in 
blood and spoil. (II. iv. 42.) His squire, Atin 
by name, acts as his forerunner to seek an 
occasion for his lord's furious delight. (II. iv. 
43.) But Guyon masters himself both in his 
refusal to fight for no good reason, and in his 
behavior when forced against his wishes to a 
conflict with Pyrochles. Guyon bids Atin 
tell his master that he, Guyon, has bound 
Occasion, and the Palmer, who is the rational 
element of Guyon personified, lectures the 
squire on the folly of wilful anger. 

" Madman (said then the Palmer) that does seeke 
Occasion to wrath, and cause of strife; 
She comes unsought, and shonned followes eke. 
Happy, who can abstaine, when Rancour rife 
Kindles Revenge, and threats his rusty knife; 
Woe never wants, where every cause is caught, 
And rash Occasion makes unquiet life." 

(II. iv. 44.) 

Even when Guyon is compelled by Pyrochles 
to the fight, the Knight does not give way to 
unrestrained wrath, but ever tempers his pas- 



18 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

sion with reason. In the conflict Pyrochles 
thundered blows : 

" But Guyon, in the heat of all his strife, 
Was warie wise, and closely did awayt 
Avauntage, whilest his foe did rage most rife." 

(II. v. 9.) 

When at last Guyon has his foe at his feet, he 
spares his life, so firmly he holds his passion in 
check. 

" Eftsoones his cruell hand Sir Guyon stayd, 
Tempring the passion with advisement slow, 
And maistring might on enimy dismayd." 

(II. v. 13.) 

Thus far Guyon's life has exemplified the 
rule of reason over the irrational element of 
wrath ; the remaining episodes of his life centre 
about the struggle of the irrational element of 
appetite. In this his soul is tried in three 
various forms of sensual desire. In Phsedria 
the first form is typified. She represents the 
light gaieties of frivolous mirth and wantonness 
which the courteous nature of Guyon may 
suffer to play until they pass the bounds of 
modesty. (II. vi. 21.) When, however, she 
tried to win his heart from warlike enterprise 
into dissolute delights of sense, Guyon 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 19 

" was wise, and warie of her will, 
And ever held his hand upon his hart : 
Yet would not seeme so rude, and thewed ill, 
As to despise so courteous seeming part, 
That gentle Ladie did to him impart, 
But fairely tempring fond desire subdewd, 
And ever her desired to depart." 

(II. vi. 26.) 

The second trial of Guyon's temperance comes 
in the House of Mammon, where he triumphs 
over sensual desire in the form of covetous- 
ness. Mammon offers him mountains of gold, 
if he will but serve him (II. vii. 9) ; he tries to 
induce him to accept by saying that money is 
the one necessity to supply all the wants of man. 
(II. vii. 11.) But Guyon answers : 

" Indeede (quoth he ) through f owle intemperaunce, 
Frayle men are oft captiv'd to covetise." 

(II. vii. 15.) 

When Mammon urges him to seat himself on 

the silver stool in the Garden of Proserpina, 

to rest awhile and eat of the golden fruit of 

the trees, — 

" All which he did, to doe him deadly fall 
In frayle intemperance through sinful bayt ; " 

Guyon 

" was warie wise in all his way, 
And well perceived his deceiptfull sleight, 



20 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

Ne suffred lust his saf etie to betray ; 

So goodly did beguile the Guyler of the pray." 

(II. vii. 64.) 

The culminating trial of the Knight's tem- 
perance is made in Acrasia's Bower of Bliss. 
Acrasia typifies that form of beauty that allures 
the senses with pleasure, but ruins the soul 
with its poisonous delight. (II. i. 52, 53.) The 
only fear that she and the inmates of her bower 
have is 

" wisedomes powre, and temperaunces might, 
By which the mightiest things efforced bin." 

(II. xii. 43.) 

During the passage to this place of delight, 
and while he was within its precincts, Guyon 
was able to withstand every assault of sensual 
desire upon his soul. When the Palmer, speak- 
ing as reason dictated, told him that the piteous 
cry of a woman in distress was only a deceitful 
ruse to win him to harm — 

" The knight was ruled, and the Boatman strayt 
Held on his course with stayed stedfastnesse." 

(II. xii. 28, 29.) 

Again, when Guyon's senses are " softly tickled " 
by the rare melody of the mermaids, as it min- 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 21 

gled with the strange harmony of the rolling 
sea, he bids the boatman row easily. 

" But him the Palmer from that vanity, 
With temperate advice discounselled, 
That they it past." (II. xii. 34.) 

Even when Gnyon began to lessen his pace at 
the sight of the fair maidens sporting in the 
lake, which kindled signs of lust in his counte- 
nance, his reason was able to resist. 

"On which when gazing him the Palmer saw, 
He much rebukt those wandring eyes of his, 
And counseld well, him forward thence did draw." 

(II. xii. 69.) 

He has now become so strong that he can 
perform the great object of his adventures, 
the destruction of the Bower of Bliss and the 
capture of the enchantress, Acrasia. (II. xii. 
83, 84.) 

So powerful is the hold on Spenser's mind of 
this Platonic conception of the nature of the 
struggle in the soul striving to be temperate 
that it colors even the Aristotelean doctrine of 
the mean which is worked out in the episode of 
Medina's castle. (II. ii. 13 et seq.~) Accord- 
ing to Aristotle temperance is a mean between 



22 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

the excess and defect of pleasure. (" Nich. 
Ethics," III, 10.) In Spenser, Medina is the 
mean ; her two sisters, Elissa and Perissa, are 
the defect and excess respectively. (II. ii. 35, 
36.) Yet Spenser has colored the character of 
each in accordance with the Platonic division 
of the soul. The three sisters are daughters 
of one sire by three different mothers ; that is, 
they are the three principles of the soul (the 
sire) ; namely, right reason (Medina), wrath 
or spirit (Elissa), and sensual desire (Perissa). 
Thus Spenser describes Elissa : 

" with bent lowring browes, as she would threat, 
She scould, and f rownd with fro ward countenaunce ; " 

(II. ii. 35.) 
and Perissa 

" Full of disport, still laughing, loosely light, 
And quite contrary to her sisters kind ; 
No measure in her mood, no rule of right, 
But poured out in pleasure and delight." 

(II. ii. 36.) 

So, too, in the description of the lovers of 
each, the presence of the two irrational princi- 
ples is felt. In Hudibras, the devoted Knight 

of Elissa — 

" not so good of deedes, as great of name, 
Which he by many rash adventures wan, 






IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 23 

More huge in strength, then wise in workes he was, 
And reason with foole-hardize over ran," — 

(II. ii. 17.) 

the angry impulse of the soul is reflected ; while 
in Sans Loy, the lover of Perissa, who had 
attempted to violate the purity of Una, — 

" The most unruly, and the boldest boy, 
That ever warlike weapons menaged, 
And to all lawlesse lust encouraged," — 

(II. ii. 18.) 

it is apparent that the appetitive element of the 
soul is figured. Temperance, then, according 
to Spenser, is not the golden mean between the 
excess and defect of pleasure, but between two 
disturbing passions. 

" But temperance (said he) with golden squire 
Betwixt them both can measure out a meane, 
Neither to melt in pleasures whot desire, 
Nor fry in hartlesse grief e and dolef ull teene." 

(II. i. 57.) 

This struggle between the rational principle 
and the irrational elements in the soul does not, 
however, constitute temperance. That virtue, 
or rather that condition of all virtue, is the 
harmony and order resulting in the soul after 
reason has quieted the disturbing passions, and 
is conceived by Plato as its very health or 



24 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

beauty. " ' Healthy,' as I conceive," says Soc- 
rates, " is the name which is given to the regular 
order of the body, whence comes health and 
every other bodily excellence. . . . And ' law- 
ful ' and ' law ' are the names which are given 
to the regular order and action of the soul, 
and these make men lawful and orderly : — 
and so we have temperance and justice." 
("Gorgias," 504.) The fruition of this idea 
in Spenser's mind is noticeable in his manner 
of speaking about temperance throughout his 
poem. Amavia had been able to win her hus- 
band back to the ways of purity through wise 
handling and " faire governaunce." (II. i. 54.) 
The Red Cross Knight mentions the " goodly 
governaunce" of Guyon's life. (II. i. 29.) 
Spenser comments in an introductory stanza on 
the Knight's demeanor in pleasures and pains : 

" And Guyon in them all shewes goodly maisteries." 

The Knight and the Palmer move on in their 
path of progress " in this faire wize," that is, 
in the ways of temperance. (II. i. 34.) When 
Archimago meets Guyon, he meets 

" Faire marching underneath a shady hill, 
A goodly knight," 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 25 

" His carriage was full comely and upright, 
His coimtenaunce demure and temperate." 

(II. i. 5, 6.) 

The feeling of order is conveyed through the 
movements of Guyon's charger. The Palmer 

" ever with slow pace the knight did lead, 
Who taught his trampling steed with equall steps to 
tread." (II. i. 7.) 

Medina, when she welcomes Guyon to her castle, 

meets him 

" Faire marching forth in honorable wize." 

(II. ii. 14.) 

The clearest explanation, however, of Spenser's 
conception of temperance as the condition of 
the soul's excellence in the body is given in his 
reflection at the opening of the eleventh book 
of the second canto, which records the repulse 
of the bodily senses from the dwelling-place of 
Alma, or the soul. No war is so fierce as that 
of the passions with the soul. 

" But in a body, which doth freely yeeld 
His partes to reasons rule obedient, 
And letteth her that ought the scepter weeld, 
All happy peace and goodly government 
Is setled there in sure establishment; 
There Alma like a virgin Queene most bright, 
Doth florish in all beautie excellent : 



26 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

And to her guestes doth bounteous banket dight, 
Attempred goodly well for health and for delight. 

(II. xi. 2.) 

After this examination of Spenser's ideals of 
holiness and temperance, it is clear why Pla- 
tonism as a system of ethics is absent in the 
remaining books of the " Faerie Queene. " Spen- 
ser's avowed aim in his poem was " to fashion 
a gentleman or noble person in vertnous and 
gentle discipline." Since he conceives of life 
as a constant warfare with inward and outward 
foes, his method of presenting his thought is 
to send each virtue on a journey during which 
it is to perfect itself by overcoming the vices 
to whose assaults it is especially liable. This 
plan is carefully followed in the first two books. 
The allegorical scheme is unbroken; the per- 
sonages encountered by the Knights are objec- 
tified states of their own spiritual consciousness. 
In the remaining books, however, the allegori- 
cal scheme has well-nigh broken down ; and 
the poetic method is that of the romantic epic 
of adventure in the manner of Ariosto. This 
change was due very largely to the fact that 
after Spenser had completed his first two books 
he had exhausted the ethical teachings of 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 27 

Plato ; and when he went on to his remaining 
books, he passed out of the sphere of virtue 
as taught by Plato into an essentially different 
realm of thought in which the graces of courtly 
accomplishment were dignified as virtues. He 
tried to treat these later virtues of chastity, 
friendship, justice, courtesy, and constancy as 
if they were coordinate with the virtues of 
holiness and temperance. But they fall into a 
distinct class by themselves. They are the 
ideals of conduct to be followed when man is 
acting in his purely social capacity as a mem- 
ber of society. They may be dignified as vir- 
tues, but can never be coordinate with the 
Platonic conception of virtue, which conceives 
of it not as an outward act, but as the very 
health of the soul when realizing, unhampered 
by any disturbing influences, its native impulses 
toward the good. 

The difference between these two concep- 
tions is strikingly illustrated by a comparison 
of Spenser's idea of justice with the Platonic 
notion. According to the English poet, justice 
is purely retributive, a dispensing of reward and 
punishment. The education of the Knight of 
Justice, Arthegal, by Astrsea, is thus described : 



28 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

u There she him taught to weigh both right and wrong 
In equall ballance with due recompence, 
And equitie to measure out along, 
According to the line of conscience, 
When so it needs with rigour to dispence." 

(V. i. 7.) 

In Plato, on the other hand, justice is the same 
thing as temperance, an inward state of the 
soul and the condition of any virtue. " But," 
says Socrates, "in reality justice was such as 
we were describing, being concerned however 
not with the outward man, but with the in- 
ward, which is the true self and concernment 
of man : for the just man does not permit the 
several elements within him to interfere with 
one another, or any of them to do the work of 
others, — he sets in order his own inner life, 
and is his own master and his own law, and at 
peace with himself ; and when he has bound 
together the three principles within him . . . 
and is no longer many, but has become one 
entirely temperate and perfectly adjusted na- 
ture, then he proceeds to act . . . always 
thinking and calling that which preserves and 
cooperates with this harmonious condition, just 
and good action, and the knowledge which pre- 
sides over it, wisdom, and that which at any 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 29 

time impairs this condition, -he will call unjust 
action, and the opinion which presides over it 
ignorance." ( u Republic," IV. 443.) Spenser 
did not attempt to incorporate this idea into his 
notion of justice ; he had already exhausted it in 
his second book, in his explanation of temper- 
ance. Nothing was left for him to do but to 
shift his mind from a conception of virtue as one, 
to an inferior notion of virtue as a manifold of 
personal graces. But in thus changing his idea, 
he destroyed the unity of his work. In his first 
two books he had explained how the soul could 
perfect itself in the full scope of its powers ; 
and in doing this he had taught the Platonic 
doctrines of a heavenly beauty and of temper- 
ance as the condition of virtue in the soul. 
Here lay the basic idea of his conception of a 
gentleman. 

"But vertue's seat is deepe within the mynd, 
And not in outward shows, but inward thoughts defynd." 

(VI., Introd., stz. 5.) 

This idea, however, is not felt as the informing 
spirit of his books on courtesy and on friend- 
ship, but appears only in scattered reflections. 
In the later books the inferior conception of 



30 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

virtue is the controlling idea, and Spenser has 
failed to harmonize it with his earlier and finer 
one. 

III. CHASTITY 

Although Platonism as a system of ethical 
philosophy determined the structural unity of 
the first two books of the " Faerie Queene " and 
as a system ceases to be felt in the construction of 
the later books, the purity of its ethical teach- 
ing is present throughout the entire work. 
The truths of Platonism were a strong in- 
fluence in moulding an ideal of noble love. 
The cardinal doctrine of this ethical philos- 
ophy was that true beauty is to be found by 
the soul only in moral ideas. This convic- 
tion, which was so powerful in ennobling the 
Christian conception of holiness, was carried 
over into the realm of man's social relations, 
and through the genius of Spenser made to 
dignify the conception of human love, and to 
inform with a profound spiritual truth the idea 
of chastity in its broadest signification as the 
purity of the soul. 

The influence of the ethical conception of 
beauty upon the subject of romantic love is 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 31 

found in the work of Spenser. Although 
Spenser's mind had a strong bent toward 
philosophy, so that it could interpret the very 
spirit of Plato's conception of wisdom and 
temperance, it was still a mind in which the 
genius of the poet was always uppermost. It 
thus resulted that in him the teaching of the 
beauty of moral ideas came to fruition in 
ennobling the conception of human life by 
an appreciation of the true beauty of woman's 
inner nature, her womanhood, and by a con- 
ception of love that placed its source in the 
reverent adoration of this spiritual beauty. 

The exposition of the true inward beauty 
of woman is found in the " Epithalamion " and 
in a minor episode of the " Faerie Queene." 
In the account of the dialectic, by which the 
lover gains a sight of absolute beauty, Plato 
has stated that at one stage the lover will 
see that beauty of mind surpasses beauty of 
outward form. Plato says, " In the next stage 
he will consider that the beauty of the mind is 
more honourable than the beauty of outward 
form." ("Symposium," 210.) This idea lies at 
the basis of Spenser's praise of beauty in the 
"Epithalamion." In his marriage hymn he 



32 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

dwells in exuberant Renaissance fashion upon 
the physical perfections of the bride, each de- 
tail an object of delight to the senses. The 
sight of such beauty amazes the beholders. 
But after this is done, Spenser draws attention 
to the truth that, although these perfections 
that are visible to the eye may daze the mind, 
there is a higher beauty of soul which no eye 
can see. His admiration for the bride's beauty 
is then caught up into a more lofty pitch and 
blended with his love of her moral qualities. 

" Tell me ye merchants daughters did ye see 
So fayre a creature in your towne before, 
So sweet, so lovely, and so mild as she, 
Adornd with beautyes grace and vertues store, 
Her goodly eyes lyke Saphyres shining bright, 
Her forehead yvory white, 

Her cheekes lyke apples which the sun hath rudded, 
Her lips lyke cherryes charming men to byte, 
Her brest lyke to a bowle of creame uncrudded, 
Her paps lyke lyllies budded, 
Her snowie necke lyke to a marble towre, 
And all her body like a pallace fayre, 
Ascending uppe with many a stately stayre, 
To honors seat and chastities sweet bowre. 
Why stand ye still ye virgins in amaze, 
Upon her so to gaze, 

Whiles ye forget your former lay to sing, 
To which the woods did answer and your eccho ring? " 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 33 

" But if ye saw that which no eyes can see, 
The inward beauty of her lively spright, 
Garnisht with heavenly guifts of high degree, 
Much more then would ye wonder at that sight, 
And stand astonisht lyke to those which red 
Medusaes mazefull lied. 

There dwels sweet love and constant chastity, 
Unspotted fayth and comely womanhood, 
Regard of honour and mild modesty, 
There vertue raynes as Queene in royal throne, 
And giveth lawes alone. 
The which the base affections doe obay, 
And yeeld theyr services unto her will, 
Ne thought of things uncomely ever may 
Thereto approch to tempt her mind to ill. 
Had ye once seene these her celestial threasures, 
And unrevealed pleasures, 
Then would ye wonder and her prayses sing, 
That al the woods should answer and your echo ring." 

(11. 167-203.) 

In the " Faerie Queene " there is a less elabo- 
rate example of this same appreciation of the 
inward, unseen beauty of the soul. The con- 
trast is set up between the lively portrait of the 
Faerie Queene on Guyon's shield and the actual 
beauty of her person, and then extended to a 
comparison of this with the beauty of her mind. 
Arthur has asked Guyon who is the original 
of the portrait he bears on his shield and has 
chanced to notice its great liveliness. Guyon 



34 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

does not answer directly, but breaks out into 
praise of the Queen's beauty. If a mere like- 
ness appeals so strongly to Arthur, what must 
he think when he beholds the glorious orig- 
inal ; and though this is fair, the beauty of her 
mind, if he but knew it, would arouse great 
wonder and pour infinite desire into his soul. 

" Faire Sir (said he) if in that picture dead 
Such life ye read, and vertue in vaine shew, 
What mote ye weene, if the trew lively-head 
Of that most glorious visage ye did view? 
But if the beautie of her mind ye knew, 
That is her bountie, and imperiall powre, 
Thousand times fairer then her mortall hew, 
O how great wonder would your thoughts devoure, 
And infinite desire into your spirite poure ! " 

(II. ix. 3.) 

In the vision of this inward world of beauty 
in woman's mind, so Spenser teaches, begins 
the passion of loy_e. In the " Phsedrus " Plato 
has analyzed it as a divine fury, and in his 
account he emphasizes the feeling of reverence 
with which the lover gazes upon the beauty 
of the beloved, seeing in it the idea of pure 
beauty which his soul has beheld in its pre- 
natal existence. "But he," says Plato, "whose 
initiation is recent, and who has been the spec- 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 35 

tator of many glories in the other world, is 
amazed when he sees any one having a godlike 
face or any bodily form which is the expression 
of divine beauty ; and at first a shudder runs 
through him, and again the old awe steals over 
him ; then looking upon the face of his beloved 
as of a god he reverences him, and if he were 
not afraid of being thought a downright mad- 
man, he would sacrifice to his beloved as 
to the image of a god." (" Pheedrus," 251.) 
The habit of contemplating the beauty of the 
beloved in reverent fear is characteristic of the 
love which Arthegal feels for Britomart. So in- 
timately acquainted was Spenser with Plato that 
he caught the spirit of his worship of beauty. 
Disguised as Britomart, the virgin Knight of 
Chastity, was, in her panoply of armor, her 
beauty was not the object of constant sight. 
On three different occasions, however, when by 
the removal of some portion of it her features 
shine forth, the impression made by her beauty 
is that of reverent adoration. When Arthegal 
chances thus to behold her, the sight is so 
awful that he hesitates to press his suit for her 
love, and only after some time does he venture 
to win her affections. 



36 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

One occasion on which the spectators catch 
a glimpse of Britomart's beauty occurs when 
she unlaces her helmet. The sight of her golden 
locks strikes all with amazement ; and though 
there is a mingled feeling of surprise and curi- 
osity, due to the preconceived notion of her sex, 
the feeling of amazement and adoration of her 
beauty is expressly stated as consequent upon 
this revelation. 

" With that, her glistring helmet she unlaced ; 
Which doft, her golden lockes, that were up bound 
Still in a knot, unto her heeles downe traced, 
And like a silken veile in compasse round 
About her backe and all her bodie wound ; 
Like as the shining skie in summers night, 
What time the dayes with scorching heat abound, 
Is creasted all with lines of firie light, 
That it prodigious seemes in common peoples sight. 

" Such when those Knights and Ladies all about 
Beheld her, all were with amazement smit, 
And every one gan grow in secret dout 
Of this and that, according to each wit : 

"But that young Knight [Scudamour], which through 
her gentle deed 
Was to that goodly fellowship restor'd, 
Ten thousand thankes did yeeld her for her meed, 
And doubly overcommen, her ador'd." 

(IV. i. 13, 14, 15.) 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 37 

A second time when her beauty is revealed 
in greater fulness, the feeling of terror and 
amazement inspired is especially emphasized. 
The spectators are described as standing in 
mute astonishment, in worship of her divine 
beauty. 

" Which whenas they beheld, they smitten were 
With great amazement of so wondrous sight, 
And each on other, and they all on her 
Stood gazing, as if suddein great affright 
Had them surprised. At last avizing right, 
Her goodly personage and glorious hew, 
Which they so much mistooke, they tooke delight 
In their first errour, and yet still anew 
With wonder of her beauty fed their hungry vew. 

" Yet note their hungry vew be satisfide, 
But seeing still the more desir'd to se3, 
And ever nrmely fixed did abide 
In contemplation of divinitie." 

(III. ix. 23, 24.) 

In the fight between Britomart and Arthegal 
the sword of the latter cuts away a part of her 
ventayle, discovering to his view her beautiful 
face. As he is about to raise his arm for a sec- 
ond blow, he is benumbed with fear, and, fall- 
ing on his knee, he gazes upon her beauty with 
a true religious feeling of wonder. 



38 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" And as his hand he up againe did reare, 
Thinking to worke on her his utmost wracke, 
His powrelesse arme benumbd with secret feare 
From his revengefull purpose shronke abacke, 
And cruell sword out of his fingers slacke 
Fell downe to ground, as if the Steele had sence, 
And felt some ruth, or sence his hand did lacke, 
Or both of them did thinke, obedience 
To doe to so divine a beauties excellence. 

"And he himself e long gazing thereupon 
At last fell humbly downe upon his knee, 
And of his wonder made religion, 
Weening some heavenly goddesse he did see, 
Or else unweeting, what it else might bee ; 
And pardon her besought his errour frayle, 
That had done outrage in so high degree; 
Whilest trembling horrour did his sense assayle, 
And made ech member quake, and manly hart to 
quayle." 

(IV. vi. 21, 22.) 

With this vision of the resplendent beauty 
of chastity begins Arthegal's love for Britomart. 
It has been pointed out by critics that the love 
episode between Britomart and Arthegal was 
a suggestion — so far as plot goes — which 
Spenser found in Ariosto's account of the love 
of Ruggiero and Bradamante in the " Orlando 
Furioso." 1 But the great difference in the 

1 Cf. Pub. of Mod. Lang. Ass. of Amer., 1897, p. 177, 
"Spenser's Imitations from Ariosto." 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 39 

poets appears in the contrast of the passionate 
love of beauty revealed in Spenser's poem with 
the superficial delights of love as explained in 
Ariosto. As has already been seen, Platonism 
as a system of ethics disappears from the 
" Faerie Queene " after the second book ; but 
so deeply had Spenser been impressed with 
the worship of beauty characteristic of Plato's 
manner, that when he came to recount the his- 
tory of the passion of love, in his Knight of 
Justice, for his heroine, Chastity, he centred 
attention upon the feeling of awe and rev- 
erence inspired by the beauty of chastity, and 
intimated the sobering effect of this vision upon 
the behavior of the lover. He found nothing 
like this in the " Orlando Furioso." The love 
episode in Ariosto is thus briefly described : 

" Rogero looks on Bradamant, and she 
Looks on Rogero in profound surprise 
That for so many days that witchery 
Had so obscured her altered mind and eyes. 
Rejoiced, Rogero clasps his lady free, 
Crimsoning with deeper than the rose's dyes, 
And his fair love's first blossoms, while he clips 
The gentle damsel, gathers from her lips. 

" A thousand times they their embrace renew, 
And closely each is by the other prest ; 



40 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

While so delightful are these lovers two, 
Their joys are ill contained within their breast." 

(xxii. 32, 33.) 

Here is only the note of delight. In Spenser, 
however, the dread awe aroused by Britornart's 
beauty restrains the passionate utterance of the 
lover, and only after some time has elapsed, dur- 
ing which the two have rested from the fatigues 
of their combat, does Arthegal dare to make 
suit to Britornart's affections, — 

u Yet durst he not make love so suddenly, 
Ne thinke th' affection of her hart to draw 
From one to other so quite contrary." 

(IV. vi. 33.) 

The training afforded by the philosophy of 
Plato in the realization of the true moral value 
of beauty has a somewhat different result in 
the work of Milton. Owing to his preconceived 
notion of the moral inferiority of woman, Milton 
does not permit his mind to dwell upon the 
vision of beauty to be seen in her, as Spenser's 
chivalric impulses have led him to do ; but in 
Miiton the flowering of Platonic thought is 
found in a certain conception of chastity, which 
teaches that love begins and ends only in the 
soul. And yet the deep sense of beauty which 



y 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 41 

he has, asserts itself at times even in spite 
of his prejudices ; consequently in his work 
there is a wavering of mind between the con- 
viction that woman's beauty cannot be the 
expression of the beauty of a moral order, since 
she is the moral inferior of man, and the more 
chivalric notion that in her beauty lies the 
inspiration of the soul to know goodness. 

In Milton the love of beauty is the conscious / 
activity of a contemplative mind rather than 
the pouring out of the soul's passion in rev- 
erent adoration. About Spenser beauty lies 
as a golden splendour streaming from the hid- 
den world of the moral nature ; whenever it 
shines upon the lover's sight, it at once moves 
him to silent adoration. In Milton, on the 
other hand, beauty is an idea to be known in 
the soul by him who seeks for it among the 
beautiful objects of the world of sense ; its 
pursuit is an intellectual quest of a philosophic 
mind. Writing to his friend, Charles Diodati, 
he says : " What besides God has resolved con- 
cerning me I know not, but this at least : He 
has instilled into me, at all events, a vehement love 
of the beautiful. Not with so much labour as the 
fables have it, is Ceres said to have sought her 



42 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

daughter Proserpine, as I am wont clay and night 
to seek for this idea of the beautiful (hanc rod 
tcaXov iheav) through all the forms and faces of 
things (for many are the shapes of things divine}, 
and to follow it leading me on as with certain 
assured traces." 2 

The expression of this love of beauty is found 
in Milton's Satan. Abiding beneath the wreck 
of his moral character, in spite of the perversion 
of a malicious will, there remain in Satan a 
deep sense of beauty and a contemplative love 
of it for its moral quality. In a speech ad- 
dressed to Christ in " Paradise Regained " 
Satan himself confesses this one conviction 
of his soul. The contemplative love of the 
beauty of goodness and virtue is the very 
condition of his soul's existence. Thus he 

says : 

" Though I have lost, 
Much lustre of my native brightness, lost 
To be beloved of God, I have not lost 
To love, at least contemplate and admire, 
What I see excellent in good, or fair, 
Or virtuous ; I should so have lost all sense." 

(I. 377-382.) 

The honesty of this confession is not impugned 

by Christ, although he exposes the hollow in- 

1 Masson, Life of Milton, I. 600. 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 43 

sincerity of the rest of Satan's speech in which 

these lines occur. 

And Satan lives up to his confession. The 

power of moral goodness to hold his mind's 

thought by its beauty is seen in his behavior 

in the Garden of Eden. He had reached this 

place in pursuit of his revenge to ruin the 

happy pair. As he gazes upon the beauties of 

the garden, 

" where the Fiend 
Saw undelighted all delight, all kind 
Of living creatures, new to sight and strange," — 

(IV. 285-287.) 

he at last catches sight of Adam and Eve, in 

whom 

" The image of their glorious Maker shone, 
Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure." 

(IV. 292-293.) 

On these he stands gazing until evening, and 
at last breaks out into an expression of the 
love which this vision of their beauty has 
aroused in him : 

" the sun, 
Declined, was hasting now with prone career 
To the Ocean Isles, and in the ascending scale 
Of Heaven the stars that usher evening rose : 
When Satan, still in gaze, as first he stood, 
Scarce thus at length failed speech recovered sad : — 



44 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

< O Hell ! what do mine eyes with grief behold ? 
Into our room of bliss thus high advanced 
Creatures of other mould — Earth-born perhaps, 
Not spirits, yet to Heavenly Spirits bright 
Little inferior — whom my thoughts pursue 
With wonder, and could love ; so lively shines 
In them divine resemblance, and such grace 
The hand that formed them on their shape hath poured.'" 

(IV. 352-365.) 

At another time Satan is occupied in contem- 
plating beauty, but it is the beauty he sees in 
Eve alone. Milton's treatment of the episode is 
characteristic of that wavering of his mind be- 
tween the two impulses — one to worship beauty, 
and the other to teach that woman is the inferior 
of man. The later conviction is expressed in 
Adam's words to Raphael : 

" For well I understand in the prime end 
Of Nature her the inferior, in the mind 
And inward faculties, which most excel ; 
In outward also her resembling less 
His image who made both, and less expressing 
The character of that dominion given 
O'er other creatures." (VIII. 540-546.) 

Thus Eve confesses that in Adam's beauty, and 
not in the image of her own soft feminine grace, 

does she u bm 

"see 

How beauty is excelled by manly grace 
And wisdom, which alone is truly fair." 

(IV. 489-491.) 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 45 

Yet in the presence of Eve's beauty Satan 

stands lost in contemplation, made for one 

moment good. 

" Such pleasure took the Serpent to behold 
This flowery plat, the sweet recess of Eve 
Thus early, thus alone. Her heavenly form 
Angelic, but more soft and feminine, 
Her graceful innocence, her every air 
Of gesture or least action, overawed 
His malice, and with rapine sweet bereaved 
His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought. 
That space the Evil One abstracted stood 
From his own evil, and for the time remained 
Stupidly good, of enmity disarmed, 
Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge." 

(IX. 455-466.) 

Even here the idea of the inferiority of Eve's 

beauty enters into the description; but a few 

lines below it makes itself even more strongly 

felt. Because her beauty is without its power 

to inspire awe and terror, Satan reasons that 

she is the proper one to tempt. 

" Then let me not let pass 
Occasion which now smiles. Behold alone 
The Woman, opportune to all attempts — 
Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh, 
Whose higher intellectual more I shun. 

***** 
She fair, divinely fair, fit love for Gods, 
Not terrible, though terror be in love 



46 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

And beauty, not approached by stronger hate, 
Hate stronger under show of love well feigned." 

(IX. 479-492.) 

In this contemplative love of beauty there is 
present as a noticeable element the conscious- 
ness in the poet's mind of the moral significance 
of beauty. In Spenser's description of the first 
meeting of Calidore with Pastorella, however, 
the contemplative love of beauty so absorbs the 
power of the soul that the lover and the poet 
are oblivious to every other thought and silently 
gaze upon the beauty of form present to their 
eyes. Calidore sees Pastorella on a little hillock 
surrounded by maidens, she lovelier than all. 

" So stood he still long gazing thereupon, 
Ne any will had thence to move away, 
Although his quest were f arre afore him gon ; 
But after he had fed, yet did he stay, 
And sate there still, untill the flying day 
Was farre forth spent." 

(VI. ix. 12.) 

So Satan stands before the happy pair in Para- 
dise. His will toward them is far otherwise 
than Calidore's toward Pastorella ; but his con- 
templative love of their beauty is one in spirit 
with the youthful lover's. 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 47 

The most characteristic side of Milton's 
idealism, however, is revealed in his teaching 
of the doctrine of chastity as the purity of the 
soul. In the defence of his own life which he 
made in " An Apology for Smectymnuus," he 
acknowledges an important debt in his edu- 
cation to the teaching of Platonic philosophy. 
"Thus, from the laureat fraternity of poets," 
he says, " riper years and the ceaseless round 
of study and reading led me to the shady spaces 
of philosophy ; but chiefly to the divine vol- 
umes of Plato, and his equal Xenophon : where, 
if I should tell ye what I learnt of chastity and 
love, I mean that which is truly so, whose 
charming cup is only virtue, which she bears 
in her hand to those who are worthy . . . and 
how the first and chiefest office of love begins 
and ends in the soul, producing those happy 
twins of her divine geueration, knowledge and 
virtue : with such abstracted sublimities as 
these, it might be worth your listening, readers, 
as I may one day hope to have ye in a still 
time, when there shall be no chiding." 1 Mil- 
ton was the only poet of his time who was able 
to conceive of chastity as an " abstracted sub- 
1 Milton, Prose Works, I. 225. 



48 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

limity," known in and by the soul. In his 
treatment of this theme, there are two phases : 
one in which the enthusiasm of Milton asserts 
itself in a positive way, and the other a con- 
viction of maturer experience, in which sin is 
explained negatively in its relation to the 
soul's purity. 

The fundamental idea of Plato on which 
Milton built his doctrine of chastity is the one 
taught in the " PhaBdo," that every experi- 
ence of the soul gained through the medium 
of the senses tends to degrade the soul's pure 
essence into the grosser, corporeal form of the 
body. "And were we not saying long ago," 
says Socrates, " that the soul, when using the 
body as an instrument of perception, that is 
to say, when using the sense of sight or hear- 
ing or some other sense (for the meaning of 
perceiving through the body is perceiving 
through the senses) — were we not saying 
that the soul too is then dragged by the 
body into the region of the changeable, and 
wanders and is confused ; the world spins 
round her, and she is like a drunkard, when 
she touches change?" (" Pheedo," 79.) This 
appears in the " Comus " in a modified form, 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 49 

and constitutes the basis for Milton's concep- 
tion of sin in " Paradise Lost." In the masque 
the idea is plainly stated by the Elder Brother 
in his explanation of the doctrine of chastity ; 
and its workings are seen in the effect of the 
magic potion of Comus upon all who drink it. 

" But, when lust, 
By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, 
But most by lewd and lavish act of sin, 
Lets in defilement to the inward parts, 
The soul grows clotted by contagion, 
Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite lose 
The divine property of her first being. 
Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp 
Oft seen in charnel-vaults, and sepulchres, 
Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave, 
As loath to leave the body that it loved; 
And linked itself by carnal sensualty 
To a degenerate and degraded state." 1 

(11. 463-475.) 

This idea, thus stated, is represented symboli- 
cally in the disfigurement which the magic 

1 11. 470-475 are taken from " PhEedo," 81 : "And this cor- 
poreal element, my friend, is heavy and weighty and earthy, 
and is that element of sight by which a soul is depressed 
and dragged down again into the visible world, because she 
is afraid of the invisible and of the world below — prowling 
about tombs and sepulchres, near which, as they tell us, are 
seen certain ghostly apparitions of souls which have not de- 
parted pure, but are cloyed with sight, and therefore visible." 



50 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

liquor of Comus works in the divine char- 
acter of the soul visible in the countenance. 

" Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance, 
The express resemblance of the gods, is changed 
Into some brutish form of wolf or bear, 
Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat, 
All other parts remaining as they were. 
And they, so perfect is their misery, 
Not once perceive their foul disfigurement, 
But boast themselves more comely than before, 
And all their friends and native home forget, 
To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty." 

(11. 68-77.) 

The opposition indicated in the Platonic 
doctrine between the senses and the soul is 
carried over by Milton in his description of the 
trial undergone by the spirit of him who strives 
to be chaste. In Plato the fundamental idea 
is somewhat different from Milton's ; for Plato 
is concerned with the problem of the attain- 
ment by the soul of pure knowledge, and he 
means by sense knowledge not sensuality in 
the restricted moral signification of that word, 
but in the broader signification of all experience 
gained through all the senses. Milton, however, 
places a narrow interpretation upon the doctrine 
of Plato. This is evident in his description of 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 51 

the attempt made by Comus to allure The Lady 
to sensual indulgence. 

Comus endeavors twice to overpower The 
Lady. He tries to tempt her to impurity of 
conduct, and also seeks to blind her judgment 
through the power of sense illusion. In this 
second trial there may be seen the influence of 
the Platonic notion of sense knowledge destroy- 
ing the soul's purity ; the first trial contains 
the more narrow application of the idea of un- 
chastity. Milton himself calls attention to the 
greater similarity of Comus to his mother, Circe, 
the enchantress of men's minds, than to Bacchus, 
the god of wine. He is 

" a son 
Much like his father, but his mother more." 

(11. 56, 57.) 

In keeping with his character he tries to entice 
The Lady to drink his magic potion. He re- 
minds her that about him are all the pleasures 
that fancy can beget ; he praises the marvellous 
efficacy of his elixir in stirring joy within ; and 
pleads with her not to be cruel to the dainty 
limbs that were given for gentle usage. 

" See, here be all the pleasures 
That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts, 



52 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns 

Brisk as the April buds in primrose season. 

And first behold this cordial julep here, 

That flames and dances in his crystal bounds, 

With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed. 

Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone 

In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena 

Is of such power to stir up joy as this, 

To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst. 

Why should you be so cruel to yourself, 

And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent 

For gentle usage, and soft delicacy ? 

But you invert the covenants of her trust, 

And harshly deal, like an ill borrower, 

With that which you received on other terms, 

Scorning the unexempt condition 

By which all mortal frailty must subsist, 

Refreshment after toil, ease after pain, 

That have been tired all day without repast, 

And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin, 

This will restore all soon." 

(11. 668-689.) 

To this argument The Lady replies simply that 
no real pleasure can result from mere physical 
gratification, but only from the enjoyment of 
the moral quality of goodness. Thus she says 
to Comus : 

" I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None 
But such as are good men can give good things ; 
And that which is not good is not delicious 
To a well-governed and wise appetite." 

(11. 702-705.) 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 53 

But when Comus reveals the more subtle 
trait of his nature, the response which The 
Lady makes rises to the height of the threaten- 
ing danger. The Circean strain in his charac- 
ter is his power of deceiving the soul through 
sense illusion, and his insidious desire to win 
his way into the hearts of men by courteous 
words and gay rhetoric. Thus, when he first 
is conscious of the approach of The Lady, he 

^ * « Thus I hurl 

My dazzling spells into the spongy air, 

Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion, 

And give it false presentments." 

(11. 15d-loo.) 

The effect of this sense witchery is seen in the 
forebodings of The Lady's fancy and in the hal- 
lucinations that haunt her mina as she comes 
within the range of its spells. She says : 

" A thousand fantasies 
Begin to throng into my memory, 
Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, 
And airy tongues that syllable men's names 
On sands and shores and desert wildernesses." 

(11. 205-209.) 

When Comus, then, begins to practise the more 
dangerous art of this witchery, acting in ac- 
cordance with his confession of his manner, — 



54 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" under fair pretence of friendly ends, 
And well-placed words of glozing courtesy, 
Baited with reasons not unplausible," — 

(11. 160-162.) 

she responds to the attack with an account 
of the great power of chastity. Only because 
she sees that he is trying to deceive her judg- 
ment does she deign to answer him. 

" I had not thought to have unlocked my lips 
In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler 
Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes, 
Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb." 

(11. 756-759.) 

She then intimates the power which the doc- 
trine of chastity has to overcome Comus, and 
states that, should she attempt to unfold it, the 
enthusiasm of her soul would be such as to 
overwhelm him and his magic structures. 

" Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, 
That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence ; 
Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced. 
Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth 
Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits 
To such a flame of sacred vehemence 
That dumb things would be moved to sympathize, 
And the brute Earth would lend her nerves, and shake, 
Till all thy magic structures, reared so high, 
Were shattered into heaps o'er thy false head." 

(U. 790-799.) 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 55 

This vehemence of moral enthusiasm in Mil- 
ton is due to the conception of chastity as an 
"abstracted sublimity. " He learned it, he says, 
in his study of Platonic philosophy ; but the 
teaching of it as a positive doctrine applied to 
human conduct is his own contribution, and 
strikes the characteristic note of his idealism. 
In Plato he found only the suggestion of this 
teaching. It lay in that idea of the " Phsedo," 
already explained, of the destruction of the 
soul's purity through sense knowledge. Mil- 
ton's imagination, working upon this idea, 
transformed it in a way peculiar to himself 
alone. The pure soul, according to his belief, 
has power in itself to change the body to its 
own pure essence. The conversion of body to 
soul, however, is not a tenet of Platonic philos- 
ophy in any phase. It was the working in 
Milton of that tendency, visible throughout the 
poetry of the seventeenth century, to assert the 
primacy of the soul in life — an attempt which 
was made by the metaphysical poets especially 
in their treatment of love. 

The statement of this theory of chastity is 
explained in "Comus," and its quickening influ- 
ence is felt in the very manner in which Milton 



56 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

refers to it. Before the Elder Brother recounts 
the effect of lust upon the soul he explains the 
hidden power of chastity. 

" So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity 
That, when a soul is found sincerely so, 
A thousand liveried angels lackey her, 
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, 
And in clear dream and solemn vision 
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear; 
Till oft converse with heavenly habitants 
Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, 
The unpolluted temple of the mind, 
And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence, 
Till all be made immortal." 

(11. 453-463.) 

This is the " abstracted sublimity " which The 
Lady refers to when she addresses Comus. It 
is a notion, a mystery, which he, standing for 
the purely sensual instincts of man, cannot 
apprehend. She tells him : 

" Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend 
The sublime notion and high mystery 
That must be uttered to unfold the sage 
And serious doctrine of Virginity ; 
And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know 
More happiness than this thy present lot." 

(11. 784-789.) 

So powerfully, indeed, has the vision of beauty 
described in the " Phaedrus " and the " Sym- 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 57 

posium " affected Milton's own imagination that 

he visualizes chastity much as Plato does an 

idea; it is an idea not only known to the 

mind, but thrilling the imagination with its 

beauty. When The Lady is at first conscious 

of the power of Comus's magic to disturb her 

mind with foreboding fancies, she invokes 

faith, hope, and chastity. The first two are 

seen as personages, but chastity only as a pure, 

unblemished form. 

" O, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, 
Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings, 
And thou unblemished form of Chastity ! 
I see ye visibly." 

(U. 213-216.) 

The directness of this vision is like that of the 
soul in the " Phaedrus " when it eees the flash- 
ing beauty of the beloved, " which," says Plato, 
" when the charioteer [the soul] sees, his 
memory is carried to the true beauty, whom he 
beholds in company with Modesty like an image 
placed upon a holy pedestal." ("Phsedrus," 
254.) 

It is in the vision of this holy beauty as a 
lost possession of the soul that the deadly pang 
of sin lies. In Milton's later work there is no 
reference to the power of the chaste soul to 



58 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

change the body to its own pure essence ; but 
his mind still holds to the power of sin to dim 
the soul's lustre. This is strikingly exemplified 
in the character of Satan's reflection on his faded 
glory. The one keen regret that he feels, in 
spite of his indomitable will, is occasioned by 
the thought that by reason of sinning his form 
has lost the beauty of its original goodness. 
Throughout " Paradise Lost " there is repeated 
emphasis upon the faded lustre of Satan's form. 
The very first words that fall from Satan's lips, 
in his speech to Beelzebub, as the two lay roll- 
ing in the fiery gulf, draw our attention to the 
great change in their outward forms. 

" To whom the Arch-Enemy, 
And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words 
Breaking the horrid silence, thus began : — 

' If thou beest he — but Oh how fallen ! how changed 
From him ! — who, in the happy realms of light, 
Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine 
Myriads, though bright.' " 

(I. 81-87.) 

And then, as Satan proceeds, his mind is di- 
rected to his own departed glory. 

" Yet not for those [i.e. the force of the Almighty's arms] 
Nor what the potent Victor in his rage 
Can else inflict, do I repent, or change, 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 59 

Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind, 
And high disdain from sense of injured merit." 

(I. 94-98.) 

In his address to the Sun Satan expresses his 

hatred of that bright light because it brings 

to remembrance the more glorious state from 

which he fell. 

" O thou that, with surpassing glory crowned, 
Look'st from thy sole dominion like the god 
Of this new World — at whose sight all the stars 
Hide their diminished heads — to thee I call, 
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name, 

Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams, 

That bring to my remembrance from what state 

1 fell, how glorious once above thy sphere." 

(IV. 32-39.) 

When the moral significance of this change 
in his form flashes through his mind, Satan 
then suffers the deepest regret that could come 
to him. The episode in which he learns the 
true effect of his sin is his encounter with the 
angels, Ithuriel and Zephon. These two have 
found him " squat like a toad " at the ear of 
Eve, trying to work upon her mind while she 
sleeps. At the touch of Ithuriel's spear Satan 
springs up in his real form. Ithuriel then asks 
which of the rebel angels he may be. The lofty 
pride of Satan is touched to the quick. 



60 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" ' Know ye not, then,' said Satan, filled with scorn, 

1 Know ye not me? Ye knew me once no mate 

For you, there sitting where ye durst not soar ! 

Not to know me argues yourselves unknown, 

The lowest of your throng.' " 

(IV. 827-831.) 

Zephon, however, points out that Satan should 
not think that he may still be known, as he was 
in heaven, by the brightness of his form ; for 
his glory departed when he rebelled, and now 
resembles his sin and place of doom. 

" Think not, revolted Spirit, thy shape the same, 
Or undiminished brightness, to be known 
As when thou stood'st in Heaven upright and pure. 
That glory then, when thou no more wast good, 
Departed from thee; and thou resemblest now 
Thy sin and place of doom obscure and foul." 

(IV. 835-840.) 

At this thought Satan stands abashed. Lover 
of the beautiful as he is, he now experiences the 
pang of its loss in his own life. 

" So spake the Cherub ; and his grave rebuke, 

Severe in youthful beauty, added grace 

Invincible. Abashed the Devil stood, 

And felt how awful goodness is, and saw 

Virtue in her shape how lovely — saw, and pined 

His loss ; but chiefly to find here observed 

His lustre visibly impaired ; yet seemed 

Undaunted." 

(IV. 844-851.) 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 61 

In Milton, then, whether his mind dwells on 
chastity or on the consciousness of sin's effect 
on the soul, it is to the vision of a world of 
moral beauty that at last it mounts. 

The relation of these ideals of holiness, tem- 
perance, and chastity to the Christian doctrine 
of grace, which finds a place in the works of 
these English poets, can now be clearly seen. 
The ideals of conduct are essentially moral 
ideals, and in the attainment of them the soul 
lives its fullest life. " The being who possesses 
good always, everywhere, and in all things," 
says Socrates in the "Philebus" (60), "has the 
most perfect sufficiency." According to Plato 
the soul may realize perfect sufficiency of itself, 
it is self-sufficient ; but Christian theology 
taught the necessity of a heavenly grace for man 
to work out his own salvation. The two ideals 
are thus distinct ; and though the English poets 
incorporate both in their work, the line of 
cleavage is distinctly visible, and the doctrine of 
grace plays no more than a formal part in their 
exposition of the soul's growth. In the "Faerie 
Queene " and in " Comus " Platonic idealism 
triumphs over Christian theology. ? 

In Spenser the adventures of Arthur, in 



62 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

whom heavenly grace is commonly recognized, 
have no moral significance in the progress of 
the Knight aided by him toward the realization 
of virtue. Arthur frees the Red Cross Knight 
from Orgoglio and Duessa, but the Red Cross 
Knight is, morally speaking, the same man after 
he is freed as before ; the adventure of Arthur 
answers to no change significant in the moral 
order of his life as this is revealed in holiness. 
The realization of holiness as an intimate ex- 
perience of the soul is achieved only after the 
Knight's training on the Mount of Heavenly 
Contemplation, which follows all his preceding 
discipline in the Christian graces ; for this has 
left him a " man of earth." In the legend of 
temperance the efficacy of grace is no more vital, 
and what is more, it is an intrusion upon the 
moral order ; it makes the soul untrue to itself 
and all that we know of her. The logic of 
Guyon's inner life did not require that Arthur 
should come to his rescue after he had shown 
his ability to remain temperate under strong 
emotion and in the presence of wantonness and 
covetousness. His swoon at the end of the 
seventh canto has no more meaning than mere 
bodily fatigue after toil; morally, Guyon should 



IDEALS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 63 

have been only the stronger for his past victo- 
ries over his passions. Arthur's entrance at 
the eighth canto, consequently, is not required : 
Spenser is only paralleling in his second book 
Arthur's advent in the eighth canto of his first. 
Similarly in " Comus." When the younger 
brother inquires what that power which The 
Lady possesses to keep herself unspotted in the 
presence of lust may be, if it is not the strength 
of heaven, his elder companion replies : 

" I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength, 
Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own. 
'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity." 

(11. 418-420.) 

So The Lady herself witnesses, when in the 
great crisis of her life she appeals to faith, hope, 
and chastity; if need were, she is confident that 
heaven would send an angel to her defence. 

" O, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, 
Thou hovering angel, girt with golden wings, 
And thou unblemished form of Chastity ! 
I see ye visibly, and now believe 
That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill 
Are but as slavish officers of vengeance, 
Would send a glistering guardian, if need were, 
To keep my life and honour unassailed." 

(11. 212-220.) 



M PLATONISM in ENGLISH POETR7. 

Ami the Guardian Spirit, in whose parting 
words is found the moral oi the poem, explains 
the same idea o( the self-suffioienoy of the 

virtuous soul. 

" Mortals, thai would follow me, 
Love Virtue; she alone is tree. 
She eau teach ye how to climb 
Higher than the sphery chime; 

Or, it Virtue feeble were, 
Heaven itself would stoop to her.' 

(U. L018 1028.) 

The theological doctrine of grace, although 

maintained as a part of an intellectual scheme 
of thought, did not enter into the inward life of 
Spenser's and Milton's work. So sensitive were 
they to the power of beauty that nothing could 
come between it ami the soul. To Milton beauty 
wore an invincible grace, before which all must 
give way. Satan recognized this when he was 
confronted by the angel, Zephon. 

" So spake the Cherub; ami his grave rebuke, 

Severe in youthful beauty, added grace 
Invineible." 

(IV. 844-846.) 

Nothing was more natural, then, than that such 
a mind feeding upon Plato's thought and learn- 
ing its great lesson of wisdom, that it alone 



[DEALS 01 CHRISTIAN VIRTUES 06 

u truly fair, should conceive virtue panoplied 
in all the might of beauty. He thus could 
teach in bis "Comus" "the sun-clad power of 
chastity ": 

She that bat that if r ; ^ ad In complete steel* 

And, like a rjuirered nymph with arrowi keen, 

May trace h ! j^ I - 

Infamou 

Where fchro lgh the acred rayi oi 

arage fierce, bandit/;, or- mountain 
WiJJ dare to soil fa 

CJJ. 121-427.) 

In Spenser beauty is not thna militant. When 
the Bed Cross Knight, eager to enter the Caye 
of Error n. i. 12), iaj j to LTna, confident in bis 
power, 

"Virtue give* hex lelfe light, th; . for to 

wade" 

Una cautions him to stay his step while there 
yet is time. (L L 13.) Bnt it is just as b w 
in Spenser as in Milton, that beanty is an on- 
erring guide in hie. Spenser i 
because he felt most deeply the power of 
soul's affinity for it. Throughout hi the 

influence of beauty upon man is constantly pi 
ent. E-.f-.n though at times he seems to be 
drawn to it by the subtlety of its appeal to 



66 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

sense alone, he makes it very evident that true 
beauty can be found in the soul only in its 
habits of virtuous life. Thus the witch Duessa, 
when stripped of her alluring beauty, is revolt- 
ing in her hideousness (I. ii. 40; II. i. 22), 
and Acrasia's beauty only poisons the souls of 
her lovers. (II. i. 54.) Beauty that is noth- 
ing but a mere witchery of the sense disappears 
into thin air when confronted by virtue in her 
beauty. This is the lesson taught in the van- 
ishing of the false Florimell when the true is 
placed beside her. (V. iii. 25.) The power of 
this affinity of the soul for beauty, mysterious 
as it is real, which Spenser's work reveals, is 
conveyed in a question from Sidney's "Arca- 
dia," where the spirit of the " Phsedrus " is all 
present. " Did ever mans eye looke thorough 
love upon the majesty of vertue, shining through 
beauty, but that he became (as it well became 
him) a captive ? " 1 

i Lib. 3. fol. 313 recto. 



CHAPTER II 
Theory of Love 
i. heavenly love 

Heavenly love, as conceived in the poetry of 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, refers 
to two distinct experiences. By this term the 
poets meant either the love known in the soul 
for the realities of the unseen world or the love 
which God had shown to man in his creation 
and preservation, and which man could experi- 
ence through the indwelling of God's spirit 
within him. In the explanation of the nature 
of these two experiences the teaching of Plato- 
nism played a very important part, directing 
the course of that love of man for heavenly 
things,' and accounting for the presence of love 
in the Godhead. 

To the discussion of the latter of these sub- 
jects Platonism was able to offer two concep- 
tions, in which a rational explanation of God's 
love as revealed in the creation could be found ; 
67 



68 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

one presenting the highest reality as beauty, 
the other as the good. The first conception 
was present in its theory of love. In the " Sym- 
posium" Plato had taught that love was a de- 
sire of birth in beauty, and that the highest 
love was a desire of birth in beauty absolute, 
the ultimate principle of all beauty. (" Sym- 
posium," 206, 211-212.) Christianity, on the 
other hand, had taught that God is love. By 
identifying the absolute beauty of Plato with 
God, and by applying the Platonic conception 
of the birth of love to this Christian conception 
of God as love, God Himself was understood as 
enjoying his own beauty, thus begetting beings 
like to it in fairness. In Spenser's "Hymne of 
Heavenly Love," this idea forms the first divi- 
sion of the poem which treats of the love of God. 
(11. 25-122.) At first God is conceived as liv- 
ing in Himself in love. 

" Before this worlds great frame, in which al things 
Are now containd, found any being place, 
Ere flitting Time could wag his eyas wings 
About that mightie bound, which doth embrace 
The rolling Spheres, and parts their houres by space, 
That high eternall powre, which now doth move 
In all these things, mov'd in it selfe by love." 

(11. 25-31.) 



THEORY OF LOVE 69 

Loving itself, this Power brought forth, first 

the Son. 

" It lov'd it selfe, because it selfe was faire ; 
(For faire is lov'd ;) and of it selfe begot 
Like to it selfe his eldest sonne and heire, 
Eternall, pure, and voide of sinfull blot." 

(11. 32-35.) 

After the creation of the Son God begets the 
angels in His beauty. 

" Yet being pregnant still with powref ull grace, 
And full of fruitf ull love, that loves to get 
Things like himselfe, and to enlarge his race, 
His second brood though not in powre so great, 
Yet full of beautie, next he did beget 
An infinite increase of Angels bright, 
All glistring glorious in their Makers light." 

(11. 53-59.) 

After the fall of the angels God finally creates 
man. 

" Such he him made, that he resemble might 
Himselfe, as mortall thing immortall could ; 
Him to be Lord of every living wight, 
He made by love out of his owne like mould, 
In whom he might his mightie selfe behould : 
For love doth love the thing belov'd to see, 
That like it selfe in lovely shape may bee." 

(11. 116-122.) 

The second conception of the highest reality 
as the good is used in a more general way to 



70 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

explain the reason of creation. In the " Ti- 
mseus " the Maker of the universe is conceived 
as creating the world in goodness. " Let me 
tell you," says Timseus, " why the creator 
made this world of generation. He was good, 
and the good can never have any jealousy of 
anything. And being free from jealousy, he 
desired that all things should be as like himself 
as they could be." (" Timseus," 29.) In Henry 
More the idea is expressed in the closing canto 
of his " Psychathanasia," where he is accounting 
for the creation. (III. 4.) He has words of 
bitter denunciation for those who teach that 
God created the world merely as a manifesta- 
tion of His power, His will. (III. iv. 22.) He 
maintains the Platonic teaching. 

" When nothing can to Gods own self accrew, 
Who's infinitely happy ; sure the end 
Of this creation simply was to shew 
His flowing goodnesse, which he doth out send 
Not for himself ; for nought can him amend ; 
But to his creature doth his good impart, 
This infinite Good through all the world doth wend 
To fill with heavenly blisse each willing heart. 
So the free Sunne doth 'light and 'liven every part." 

(III. iv. 16.) 

So closely allied in the English poets are 

the teachings of Platonism with the devotional 



THEORY OF LOVE 71 

spirit of Christian love that in the same man 
and even in the same experience the thought 
can pass most naturally from a conception of 
Christ's love for God, as absolute beauty, to a 
subjective treatment of it as a personal experi- 
ence. Thus in George Herbert's lyric, " Love," 
the invocation is to the love of Christ for 
God springing from His imperishable beauty ; 
but in the second division of the poem this 
love has become a refining fire that can burn 
all lusts within the soul and enable it to see 
Him. 

" Immortall Love, author of this great frame, 

Sprung from that beauty which can never fade, 
How hath man parcel'd out Thy glorious name, 
And thrown it in that dust which Thou hast made. 
***** 
" Immortall Heat, let Thy greater flame 
Attract the lesser to it ; let those fires 
Which shall consume the world first make it tame, 

And kindle in our hearts such true desires 
As may consume our lusts, and make Thee way : 

Then shall our hearts pant Thee, then shall our brain 
All her invention on Thine altar lay, 

And there in hymnes send back Thy fire again. 

" Our eies shall see Thee, which before saw dust — 

Dust blown by Wit, till that they both were blinde : 
Thou shalt recover all Thy goods in kinde, 
Who wert disseized by usurping lust." 



72 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

The earlier conception of heavenly love, 
as related to absolute beauty, is not, however, 
the more important of the two themes of this 
poetry. From the very nature of the love 
itself, although it could be described in accord- 
ance with certain Platonic conceptions, it could 
not be the subject of a personal treatment ; 
it gave no sufficient outlet for the passion of 
love. This was afforded only by that heavenly 
love which is the love of man for the unseen 
realities of the spiritual world. The full treat- 
ment which this latter subject receives in Eng- 
lish poetry testifies to the strong hold which 
the teachings of Platonism had upon religious 
experience in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries. Platonism afforded not only the 
philosophic basis for the object of this passion, 
but it also acted as a corrective tendency in 
checking the influence of an alien idea, erotic 
mysticism. 

Heavenly love, understood as a love known 
in the soul for a spiritual, or as it was then 
called, heavenly beauty, sprang out of the 
treatment to which Plato had subjected love 
in the " Symposium." In English it appears in 
two separate forms, although in both it con- 



THEORY OF LOVE 73 

sists in gaining a correct idea of the relation 
of the beauty known to the senses as compared 
with that known by the soul. The only differ- 
ence in the two expressions is that the object 
of the passion is variously described. 

In Spenser's " Hymne of Heavenly Beautie " 
occurs the first form of this love. The heavenly 
beauty celebrated in this " Hymne " is the Pla- 
tonic wisdom, Sapience, as Spenser calls it, the 
same high reality with which he had identified 
Una. (1. 186.) The subject of the love in the 
" Hymne " is formally presented as God, who is 
described as 

" that Highest farre beyond all telling, 
Fairer then all the rest which there appeare, 
Though all their beauties joynd together were : 
How then can raortall tongue hope to expresse, 
The image of such endlesse perfectnesse ? " 

(11. 104-108.) 

Yet the real subject is the praise of Sapience, 
to which somewhat more than one-third of the 
"Hymne" is devoted. A description of her 
transcendent beauty and her power to fill the 
soul of the beholder with true insight into the 
relative beauty of this world of sense and that 
of spirit is the climax of the poem. Among all 
the attributes of God mentioned, His truth, 



74 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

His love, His grace, His mercy, His might, 
His judgment (11. 113-115), the greatest is 
Sapience, who is described as sitting in the 
very bosom of the Almighty. (1. 187.) The 
fairness of her face, he says, none can tell ; 
no painter or poet can adequately describe 
her ; his own powers are so weak that he 
can only admire, not presuming to picture 
her. (11. 207-241.) So completely, however, 
does she occupy the field of spiritual vision 
in the happy mortals that behold her, that 

" Ne from thenceforth doth any fleshly sense, 
Or idle thought of earthly things remaine, 
But all that earst seemd sweet, seemes now offense, 
And all that pleased earst, now seemes to paine, 
Their joy, their comfort, their desire, their gaine, 
Is fixed all on that which now they see, 
All other sights but fayned shadowes bee. 

" And that f aire lampe, which useth to enflame 
The hearts of men with selfe consuming fyre, 
Thenceforth seemes f owle, and full of sinfull blame ; 
And all that pompe, to which proud minds aspyre 
By name of honor, and so much desyre, 
Seemes to them basenesse, and all riches drosse, 
And all mirth sadnesse, and all lucre losse. 

" So full their eyes are of that glorious sight, 
And senses fraught with such satietie, 
That in nought else on earth they can delight, 



THEORY OF LOVE 75 

But in th' aspect of that felicitie, 
Which they have written in their inward ey ; 
On which they feed, and in their fastened mynd 
All happie joy and full contentment fynd." 

(11. 270-290.) 

According to Spenser, then, heavenly love is 
the love felt in the soul when the sight of wis- 
dom in her beauty dawns upon the inner vision. 
It is a love gained through speculation; and 
though the object is conceived of as yonder in 
heaven, it is still the beauty which is seen here 
in the mind. (1. 17.) Instead of the poetical de- 
vice of the Mount of Heavenly Contemplation 
used in the " Faerie Queene " to signify the re- 
finement of the spiritual vision necessary to the 
sight of this heavenly wisdom, Spenser has been 
able to explain in detail the way along which 
the soul must travel to gain its goal. It is 
the dialectic of the " Symposium" (211), the 
progress through ever ascending gradations of 
beauty up to the first absolute beauty changed 
only in the externals as required by the 
Christian conception of the heavenly hie- 
rarchy. But throughout the long series of 
upward stages through which his mind passes, 
one may feel the quickening of his spirit at 
the thought of the highest beauty, in which 



76 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

lies the unity of the poem. In the contem- 
plation of this heavenly beauty the poem be- 
gins and ends. 

' " Rapt with the rage of mine own ravisht thought, 
Through contemplation of those goodly sights, 
And glorious images in heaven wrought, 
Whose wondrous beauty breathing sweet delights, 
Do kindle love in high conceipted sprights : 
I faine to tell the things that I behold, 
But feele my wits to faile, and tongue to fold." 

(11. 4-10.) 

" And looke at last up to that soveraine light, 
From whose pure beams al perfect beauty springs, 
That kindleth love in every godly spright, 
Even the love of God, which loathing brings 
Of this vile world, and these gay seeming things ; 
With whose sweete pleasures being so possest, 
Thy straying thoughts henceforth for ever rest." 

(11. 298-304.) 

The second form which the doctrine of 
heavenly love assumed in English is found in 
William Drummond's " Song II — It autumn 
was, and on our hemisphere." The conception 
of heavenly beauty is not the ethical notion of 
Spenser's " Hymne," but a less stimulating idea 
of the beauty of an intelligible world of which 
this world is but a copy. The attraction in 
this idea lay in its appeal to Drummond's 



THEORY OF LOVE 77 

peculiar imagination, delighting, as it did, in 
the sight of vastness. The poem is an exhor- 
tation to the lover, who is Drummond himself, 
to cease his mourning for his dead love, and to 
raise his mind to a love of heaven and of the 
beauty of God there to be seen. The two ideas 
which Platonism contributed are the notion of 
an intelligible world above this world of sense, 
and of an absolute beauty of which all beauty 
on earth is but a shadow. 

The conception of a world above this world 
was suggested by Plato in his " Phasdo " and 
explained by Plotinus in his Enneads (VI. 
vii. 12) as a pure intelligible world. " For 
since," says Plotinus, "we say that this All 
[the universe] is framed after the Yonder, as 
after a pattern, the All must first exist yonder 
as a living entity, an animal; and since its idea 
is complete, everything must exist yonder. 
Heaven, therefore, must exist there as an animal, 
not without what here we call its stars, and this 
is the idea of heaven. Yonder, too, of course, 
must be the Earth, not bare, but far more 
richly furnished with life ; in it are all crea- 
tures that move on dry land and plants rooted 
in life. Sea, too, is yonder, and all water ebb- 



78 FLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

ing and flowing in abiding life ; and all creatures 
that inhabit the water, and all the tribes of the 
air are part of the all yonder, and all aerial 
beings, for the same reason as Air itself." In 
the "Phsedo" (110-111), Plato lends color to 
his account by calling attention to the fairness 
of the place and to the pleasantness of life there. 
Drummond has seized upon this idea of an im- 
material world where all is fair and happy, and 
interprets it as the heaven whither the young 
woman who has died is urging him to direct 
his love. Thus in her addresses to Drummond 
she speaks of the character of the world where 
she lives. 

" Above this vast and admirable frame, 
This temple visible, which World we name, 



There is a world, a world of perfect bliss, 
Pure, immaterial, bright, . . . 



A world, where all is found, that here is found, 

But further discrepant than heaven and ground. 

It hath an earth, as hath this world of yours, 

With creatures peopled, stor'd with trees and flow'rs; 

It hath a sea, . . . 

It hath pure fire, it hath delicious air, 

Moon, sun, and stars, heavens wonderfully fair : 



THEORY OF LOVE 79 

But there flowr's do not fade, trees grow not old, 
The creatures do not die through heat nor cold." 

(11. 111-136.) 

It is to this world that she urges him to raise 
his mind, for all that earth has to offer is a vain 
shadow. 

" But thou who vulgar footsteps dost not trace, 
Learn to raise up thy mind unto this place, 
And what earth-creeping mortals most affect, 
If not at all to scorn, yet to neglect : 
O chase not shadows vain, which when obtain'd, 
Were better lost, than with such travail gain'd." 

(11. 181-186.) 

These shadows are worldly honor and fame. 

At this point the poem naturally passes on 
to develop the second suggestion found in Pla- 
tonism, that the beauty of earth is but a 
shadow or reflexion of the absolute beauty. 
As was common in that time, this absolute 
beauty is identified with God. Accordingly, 
the young woman appeals to Drummond to 
trust in God's beauty, which alone can fill the 
soul with bliss. If the power of earthly beauty 
— the glance of an eye — can make him leave 
all else, what, she asks, must be the love kin- 
dled by the "only Fair"; for though the 



80 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

wonders of earth, of sea, and heaven are beau- 
tiful, they are but shadows of Him. 

" O leave that love which readiest but to dust, 
And in that love eternal only trust, 
And beauty, which, when once it is possest, 
Can only fill the soul, and make it blest. 
Pale envy, jealous emulations, fears, 
Sighs, plaints, remorse, here have no place, nor tears ; 
False joys, vain hopes, here be not, hate nor wrath ; 
What ends all love, here most augments it, death. 
If such force had the dim glance of an eye, 
Which some few days thereafter was to die, 
That it could make thee leave all other things, 
And like the taper-fly there burn thy wings ; 

***** 
If once thou on that only Fair couldst gaze, 
What flames of love would he within thee raise ! 
***** 

" Those golden letters which so brightly shine 
In heaven's great volume gorgeously divine; 
The wonders all in sea, in earth, in air, 
Be but dark pictures of that sovereign Fair ; 
Be tongues, which still thus cry unto your ear, 
(Could ye amidst world's cataracts them hear,) 
From fading things, fond wights, lift your desire, 
And in our beauty, his, us made, admire : 
If we seem fair, O think how fair is he 
Of whose fair fairness shadows, steps, we be. 
No shadow can compare it with the face, 
No step with that dear foot which did it trace." 

(11. 197-234.) 



THEORY OF LOVE 81 

This "Song," then, though drawing on a different 
phase of Platonism — its more philosophic and 
fanciful side, 1 not its deep ethical truth — follows 
the same order of thought as Spenser's " Hymne," 
and like that presents heavenly love as a love 
known in the soul and growing out of a correct 
notion of the relative values of the visible beauty 
of the senses and the invisible beauty of mind. 
In Drummond heavenly love is a progression 
out of the romantic love of woman. It is not 
explicitly so stated in the "Song," but in a 
sonnet, the subject of which refers to the young 
woman of the longer poem, he writes : 

1 Besides paraphrasing " Phsedo," 110-111 in 11. 111-136, 
Drummond repeats the argument given in that dialogue to 
prove the probable existence of such a world. Cf. 11. 141- 
170 with "Phaedo," 109. — "But we who live in these 
hollows [of earth] are deceived into the notion that we are 
dwelling on the surface of the earth ; which is just as if a 
creature who was at the bottom of the sea were to fancy 
that he was on the surface of the water and that the sea 
was the heaven through which he saw the sun and the other 
stars, he having never come to the surface by reason of his 
feebleness and sluggishness, and having never lifted up his 
head and seen, nor ever heard from one who had seen, how 
much purer and fairer the world above is than his own . . . 
[But] if any man could arrive at the exterior limit [of the 
atmosphere], or take the wings of a bird and come to the 
top, then like a fish who puts his head out of water and sees 
this world, he would see a world beyond." 

G 



82 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" Sith it hath pleas'd that First and only Fair 
To take that beauty to himself again, 
Which in this world of sense not to remain, 
But to amaze, was sent, and home repair ; 
The love which to that beauty I did bear 
(Made pure of mortal spots which did it stain, 
And endless, which even death cannot impair), 
I place on Him who will it not disdain." 

(Poems, Second Pt. S. xiii.) 

This is a note heard in other poets where 
heavenly love is described as naturally grow- 
ing out of earthly love when the right idea of 
the nature of the object of that lower passion 
has been learned. Thus in Milton it is taught 
that the love of woman must not be passion, 
but must be a scale by which the mind may 
mount to the heavenly world. The passion 
which Adam feels for the loveliness that 
hedges the presence of Eve — 

u when I approach 
Her loveliness, so absolute she seems 
And in herself complete, so well to know 
Her own, that what she wills to do or say 
Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best : 
***** 

and, to consummate all, 
Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat 
Build in her loveliest, and create an awe 
About her, as a guard angelic placed — " 

(VIII. 546-559.) 



THEORY OF LOVE 83 

is described by Raphael "with contracted 
brow " as merely transported touch, in reality 
the same feeling shared by the beasts of the 
field. (VIII. 582.) Raphael, accordingly, 
directs Adam to love only the rational in Eve's 
nature, for true love has his seat in the reason. 

" What higher in her society thou find'st 
Attractive, human, rational, love still : 
In loving thou dost well, in passion not, 
Wherein true Love consists not. Love refines 
The thoughts, and heart enlarges — hath his seat 
In Reason, and is judicious, is the scale 
By which to Heavenly Love thou may'st ascend, 
Not sunk in carnal pleasure." 

(VIII. 586-594.) 

In Phineas Fletcher's sixth " Piscatorie Ec- 
logue," where there is a long discussion on the 
nature of love, human love is shown to be a 
love merely of the passing charms of woman : 
of her form, which will decay ; of her voice, 
which is but empty wind ; and of her color, 
which can move only the sense. (Stz. 20-22.) 
No attempt is made to describe the nature of 
the higher love, but a simple exhortation to 
raise this love of woman to a love of the " God 
of fishers " closes the account. 



84 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" Then let thy love mount from these baser things, 
And to the Highest Love and worth aspire : 
Love's born of fire, fitted with mounting wings ; 
That at his highest he might winde him higher ; 
Base love, that to base earth so basely clings! 

" Raise then thy prostrate love with tow'ring thought ; 
And clog it not in chains and prison here : 
The God of fishers, deare thy love hath bought : 
Most deare He loves ; for shame, love thou as deare." 

(Stz. 24, 25.) 

Heavenly love, then, whether springing from 
the desire within the soul to see wisdom in her 
beauty, or from a desire to raise the mind from 
a love of earth to the intelligible world, or 
from the desire to find a worthy object in the 
love of the rational in woman, when freed 
from all the grossness of physical passion, is 
a contemplative love of a less perishing beauty 
than can be found on earth. And just as the 
transition was easy from the love which God 
himself knows to the soul's love of God, so was 
the change from the love of soul for a higher 
reality than earthly beauty to the immortal 
love of God for the soul. Thus in Sidney's 
sonnet the subtle change is effected. 

" Leave me, O Love, which reachest but to dust, 
And thou my mind aspire to higher things : 



THEORY OF LOVE 85 

Grow rich in that which never taketh rust : 
Whatever fades, but fading pleasure brings. 
Draw in thy beames, and humble all thy might, 
To that sweet yoke, where lasting freedomes be : 
Which breakes the clowdes and opens forth the light, 
That doth both shine and give us sight to see. 
O take fast hold, let that light be thy guide, 
" In this small course which birth drawes out to death, 
And thinke how evill becommeth him to slide, 
Who seeketh heav'n, and comes of heav'nly breath. 
Then farewell world, thy uttermost I see, 
Eternall Love maintaine thy life in me." 

(S. ex.) 

The appeal which Platonism made to the 
English poets in its doctrine of a heavenly love 
was through its power to stir the minds with 
a deep sense of that beauty which God was 
understood to possess. The application of the 
principle of beauty to God resulted in a note 
of joy and in an exaltation of soul in the reli- 
gious mind, which, after forsaking the beauty 
of this world of sense, could enjoy the great 
principle of beauty in the beatific vision of 
God. Such a strain of joy may be heard in 
Drummond, in John Norris, and even in the 
quiet lyrics of George Herbert. < 

The sight of God in His absolute beauty is 
considered by these poets as the end of the 



86 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

soul's endeavor. According to John Norris 
God is the divine excellence, 

" Which pleases either mind or sense, 
Tho' thee by different names we call ! 
Search Nature through, there still wilt be 
The Sum of all that's good in her Variety." 

He thus exhorts the soul to rise to a sight of 
Him. 

" But do not thou, my Soul, fixt here remain, 
All streams of Beauty here below 
Do from that immense Ocean flow, 
And thither they should lead again. 
Trace then these Streams, till thou shalt be 
At length o'erwhelm'd in Beauty's boundless Sea" 
(" Beauty," stz. 4, 10.) 

According to Drummond, the one " choicest 
bliss " of life is the possession of God's beauty 
as a burning passion within the soul. In " An 
Hymn of True Happiness " he teaches that su- 
preme felicity does not consist in the enjoyment 
of earth's treasures, of sensuous beauty, or of 
other sensual delights, and not even in knowl- 
edge and fame. 

" No, but blest life is this, 
With chaste and pure desire, 
To turn unto the loadstar of all bliss, 
On God the mind to rest, 



THEORY OF LOVE 87 



Burnt up with sacred fire, 
Possessing him, to be by him possesst. 



(11. 61-66.) 



" A love which, while it burns 
The soul with fairest beams, 
In that uncreated sun the soul it turns, 
And makes such beauty prove, 
That, if sense saw her gleams, 
All lookers-on would pine and die for love." 

(11. 97-102.) 

The essential nature of this beatific vision is 
described either as a sense of eternal rest or of 
eternal joy. In Norris's " Prospect," the soul 
is preparing for the great change that will 
come when it is free from the body; and its 
greatest change is described as a sight of 
"the only Fair." 

" Now for the greatest Change prepare, 
To see the only Great, the only Fair, 
Vail now thy feeble eyes, gaze and be blest ; 
Here all thy Turns and Revolutions cease, 
Here's all Serenity and Peace : 
Thou'rt to the Center come, the native seat of rest. 
Here's now no further change nor need there be ; 
When One shall be Variety" 

(Stz. 5.) 

In Drummond's "Teares on the Death of 
Moeliades " the joy of the departed soul is 
repeatedly emphasized as a rest in the enjoy- 



88 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

ment of God's beauty. Thus, in closing, the 
dead is addressed : 

" Rest, blessed spright, rest satiate with the sight 
Of him whose beams doth dazzle and delight, 
Life of all lives, cause of each other cause, 
The sphere and centre where the mind doth pause ; 
Narcissus of himself, himself the well, 
Lover, and beauty, that doth all excel. 
Rest, happy ghost, and wonder in that glass 
Where seen is all that shall be, is, or was, 
While shall be, is, or was do pass away, 
And nought remain but an eternal day : 
For ever rest." 

(11. 179-188.) 

The note of joy in the beatific vision is heard 

in Drummond and Norris. In Drummond 

earthly love is a care, a war within our nature ; 

but love 

" Among those sprights above 

Which see their Maker's face, 

It a contentment is, a quiet peace, 

A pleasure void of grief, a constant rest, 

Eternal joy which nothing can molest." 

(" Urania," Madrigal 2.) 
And again : 

" O blest abode ! O happy dwelling-place 
Where visibly th' Invisible doth reign ! 
Blest people, who do see true beauty's face, 
With whose dark shadows he but earth doth deign, 



THEORY OF LOVE 89 

All joy is but annoy, all concord strife, 

Match'd with your endlesse bliss and happy life." 

(" Urania," S. v.) 

In Norris's " Seraphick Love " a more violent 
strain is detected. He has forsaken the beauty 
of earth because he has seen a fairer beauty in 
contemplation, and to this source of all good and 
beauty he thus addresses the close of his poem. 

" To thee, thou only Fair, my Soul aspires 
With Holy Breathings, languishing Desires 
To thee m' mainour' d, panting Heart does move, 
By Efforts of Ecstatic Love. 
How do thy glorious streams of Light 
Refresh my intellectual sight ! 
Tho broken, and strain'd through a Skreen 
Of envious Flesh that stands between ! 
When shall m' imprison'd Soul be free, 
That she thy Native Uncorrected Light may see, 
And gaze upon thy Beatifick Face to all Eternity?" 

(Stz. 4.) 

The violence of passion in these poets is 
absent in George Herbert, and even the 
presence of the beatific vision, as a conscious 
experience of the soul known after the long 
travail of its search for beauty, is not in the 
least discernible. Still, the conviction that 
there is a higher beauty than that seen on 
earth, and that in truth lies this beauty, is 



90 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

felt beneath the mildness of Herbert's de- 
votion. In two sonnets, which he sent to 
his mother in 1608, he laments the decay of 
any true love for God among the poets, and 
contrasts the beauty of God with the beauties 
of the amorists. To him the beauty of God 
lies in the discovery. 

" Such poor invention burns in their [the amorists'] low 
minde, 
Whose fire is wild, and doth not upward go 
To praise, and on Thee, Lord, some ink bestow. 
Open the bones, and you shall nothing finde 
In the best face but filth ; when, Lord, in Thee 
The beauty lies in the discoverie." 

(S. i.) 

He is, accordingly, content to sing the praises 

of God. 

" Let foolish lovers, if they will love dung, 
With canvas, not with arras, clothe their shame ; 
Let Follie speak in her own native tongue : 
True Beautie dwells on high ; ours in a flame 
But borrow'd thence to light us thither ; 
Beautie and beauteous words should go together." 
(" The Forerunners," 11. 25-30.) 

So intimately has this notion of the spiritual 
nature of true beauty blended with the simple 
experience of his devotional life that he can 
ask 



THEORY OF LOVE 91 

" Is there in truth no beautie ? 
Is all good structure in a winding-stair? 
May no lines passe, except they do their dutie 
Not to a true, but painted chair ? 

Must purling streams refresh a lover's loves ? 
Must all be vail'd while he that reades divines, 
Catching the sense at two removes V 1 

As for himself, he says : 

" I envie no man's nightingale or spring ; 
Nor let them punish me with loss of rhyme, 
Who plainly say, My God, my King." 

("Jordan.") 

In that truth he found his beauty. 

Platonism, then, came as a direct appeal to 
the religious mind of the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries which was so constituted that 
the element of philosophic revery was blended 
most naturally with a strain of pure devotional 
love. Although the ultimate postulates of 
that philosophy were intellectual principles, 
they were such as could be grasped by the 
soul only in its deep passion of love for spirit- 

1 This idea of catching the truth of a thing at two re- 
moves and the reference to a true and painted chair are 
reminiscences of Plato's discussion of imitative art, and his 
figure of the three beds. (" Republic " X, 597-599.) 



92 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

ual beauty. The condemnation which Baxter 
passes upon other philosophies could not be 
brought with truth against Platonism. "In 
short," he says, "I am an enemy of their 
philosophy that vilify sense. . . . The Scrip- 
ture that saith of God that He is life and light, 
saith also that He is love, and love is com- 
placence, and complacence is joy ; and to say 
God is infinite, essential love and joy is a better 
notion than with Cartesians and Cocceians to 
say that God and angels and spirits are but a 
thought or an idea. What is Heaven to us 
if there be no love and joy ? " 1 This desire of 
life and love, along its upper levels of thought, 
was satisfied by Platonism ; it enabled the poets 
to forecast the life of the soul in heaven, and 
of its anticipation on earth as a love of beauty. 
There was a strong tendency, however, 
throughout this period of religious poetry, 
toward a phase of devotional love which may 
be called erotic mysticism, or that love for 
Christ which is characterized less by admi- 
ration and more by tenderness and mere delight 
in the pure sensuous experience of love. Con- 

1 "Puritan and Anglican Studies," Edward Dowden, pp. 
29-30. 



THEORY OF LOVE 93 

templation of Christ's divine nature as essen- 
tial beauty is totally absent from this passion. 
Christ as the object of this love is conceived 
only as the perfection of physical beauty ; 
and the response within the soul of the lover is 
that of mere sensuous delight either in the 
sight of his personal beauties or in the realiza- 
tion of the union with him. This strain of reli- 
gious devotion is heard in Herbert, in Vaughan, 
and Crashaw. In Herbert, who confessed that 
he entered the service of the church in order 
to be like Christ, " by making humility lovely," 
— a confession which breathes pure emotion, — 
there was joined so sensuous a strain that "he 
seems to rejoice in the thoughts of that word 
Jesus, and say, that the adding these words, 
my Master, to it, and often repetition of them, 
seemed to perfume his mind, and leave an 
oriental fragrancy in his very breath." 1 The 
spectacle of the crucified Saviour of man was 
especially influential in keeping this strain of 
mystical devotion alive ; and the minds of 
these poets are continually dwelling upon the 
beauty of his mangled hands and feet. In 
a nature so eminently intellectual as John 

1 Walton, "Life of Herbert," pp. 386, 396. 



94 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

Donne's, this strain of feeling is still present, 
and in his explanation of the grounds for such 
a love is found an excellent account of its 
varying phases. In one of his sermons he 
says : 

" I love my Saviour, as he is the Lord, he that 
studies my salvation : and as Christ, made a 
person able to work my salvation ; but when 
I see him in the third notion, Jesus, accomplish- 
ing my salvation, by an actual death, I see 
those hands stretched out, that stretched out 
the heavens, and those feet racked, to which 
they that racked them are footstools : I hear 
him, from whom his nearest friends fled, pray 
for his enemies, and him, whom his Father 
forsook, not forsake his brethren : I see him 
that clothes this body with his creatures, or 
else it would wither, and clothes this soul with 
his righteousness, or else it would perish, hang 
naked upon the cross ; . . . when I conceit, 
when I contemplate my Saviour thus, I love 
the Lord, and there is reverent adoration in 
that love, I love Christ, and there is a mys- 
terious adoration in that love, but I love 
Jesus, and there is a tender compassion in that 
love. . . ." (Works, II. 181.) 



THEORY OF LOVE 95 

Whenever Platonism enters into this tender 
passion it always elevates the emotion into a 
higher region, where the more intellectual or 
spiritual nature of Christ or God is the object 
of contemplation ; and it does this by affording 
the poets a conception of the object of the 
soul's highest love, as a philosophical principle, 
whether of beauty, of good, or of true being. 

The first way by which this elevation of a 
purely sensuous passion into a higher region was 
effected was through the Platonic conception of 
the "idea." Plato had taught that in love the 
mind should pass from a sight of the objects 
of beauty through ever widening circles of 
abstraction to the contemplation of absolute 
beauty in its idea. This can be known only 
by the soul, and is the only real beauty. Spen- 
ser's "Hymne of Heavenly Love" is the best 
example of the application of this idea to the 
love of Christ. In this poem he sings the praise 
of Christ as the God of Love. He finds the 
chief manifestation of Christ's love in his sacri- 
fice. At first he treats this as a spectacle to 
move the eye. He dwells upon the mangling 
of Christ's body (11. 241-247), and exhorts the 
beholder to 



96 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" bleede in every vaine, 
At sight of his most sacred heavenly corse." 

(11. 251-252.) 

But later, instead of calling upon the beholder 
to lift up his " heavie clouded eye " to behold 
such a manifestation of mercy (11. 226-227), 
he directs him to lift up his mind and meditate 
upon the author of his salvation (1. 258). 
Christ's love then will burn all earthly desire 
away by the power of 

" that celestiall beauties blaze," 

(1. 280.) 

whose glory dazes the eye but illumines the 
spirit. And then, when this final stage of 
refinement is past, the ravished soul of the 
beholder shall have a sight not of 

" his most sacred heavenly corse " 

(1. 252.) 

but of the very idea of his pure glory. 

" Then shall thy ravisht soule inspired bee 
With heavenly thoughts, farre above humane skill, 
And thy bright radiant eyes shall plainely see 
Th' Idee of his pure glorie present still, 
Before thy face, that all thy spirits shall fill 
With sweet enragement of celestiall love, 
Kindled through sight of those faire things above." 

(11. 284-290.) 



THEORY OF LOVE 97 

The " Hymne," which celebrates the life of 
Christ on earth as a man among men, closes, as 
it had begun, with the mind in the presence of 
heavenly beauty. 

In Phineas Fletcher the term " idea " is not 
used, but the habit of thought is identical with 
that of Spenser's. Christ is to be seen by the 
soul, not in his bodily form, but in his "first 
beautie" and "true majestic" In the passage 
where these expressions occur Fletcher is show- 
ing the manner of the love we should bestow 
upon Christ for that which he has shown to us. 
He says that the only adequate return is to give 
back to Christ the love he has given to us. 
He then prays that Christ will inflame man 
with his glorious ray in order that he may rise 
above a love of earthly things into heaven. 

" So we beholding with immortall eye 
The glorious picture of Thy heav'nly face, 
In His first beautie and true Majestie, 
May shake from our dull souls these fetters base ; 
And mounting up to that bright crystal sphere, 
Whence Thou strik'st all the world with shudd'ring fear, 
May not be held by earth, nor hold vile earth so deare." 
(" The Purple Island," VI. 75.) 

In Crashaw's " In the Glorious Epiphanie of 
Our Lord God," the elevation of the subject from 



98 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

a sensuous image into an object of pure contem- 
plation is effected by conceiving Christ's nature 
as that of true being according to the Platonic 
notion. The first image brought before the 
mind is that of the Christ child's face. 

" Bright Babe ! Whose awfull beautyes make 
The morn incurr a sweet mistake ; 
For Whom the officious Heavns devise 
To disinheritt the sun's rise : 
Delicately to displace 
The day, and plant it fairer in Thy face." 

(11. 1-5.) 

Soon, however, under this image of the face 
appears the hidden conception of Christ as true 
being unchanging and everywhere present. 
For Christ is addressed as 

" All-circling point ! all-centring sphear ! 
The World's one, round, aeternall year : 
Whose full and all-unwrinkled face 
Nor sinks nor swells with time or place ; 
But every where and every while 
Is one consistent, solid smile." 

(11. 26- 31.) 

The poem, then, which had begun with a recog- 
nition of the beauty of the Babe's eyes in whose 
beauty the East had come to seek itself, ends 
in a desire not to know what may be seen with 



THEORY OF LOVE 99 

the eyes, but to press on, upward to a purely 
intellectual object, — Christ in heaven. 

" Thus we, who when with all the noble powres 
That (at Thy cost) are call'd not vainly, ours : 
We vow to make brave way 

Upwards, and presse on for the pure intelligentiall 
prey." 

(11. 220-223.) 

In those passages in Henry More, where the 
mystic union of the soul with Christ or God is 
symbolized as a sensuous experience, the elevat- 
ing power of Platonism is noticeable in the 
progression of the poet's mind out of this lower 
plane into a higher region of pure thought. 
Thus in " Psychathanasia " the advance is made 
from a treatment of the communion, which 
the blest have with Christ in their partaking 
His body and blood, to a contemplation of the 
beauty of God. In this union, which is shared 
by those 

" whose souls deiform summitie 
Is waken'd in this life, and so to God 
Are nearly joynd in a firm Unitie," 

(III. i. 30.) 

the true believers grow incorporate with Christ. 

" Christ is the sunne that by his chearing might 
Awakes our higher rayes to joyn with his pure light. 

ILoFC. 



100 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" And when he hath that life elicited, 
He gives his own dear body and his bloud 
To drink and eat. Thns dayly we are fed 
Unto eternall life. Thus do we bud, 
True heavenly plants, suck in our lasting food 
From the first spring of life, incorporate 
Into the higher world (as erst I show'd 
Our lower rayes the soul to subjugate 
To this low world) we fearlesse sit above all fate, 

" Safely that kingdomes glory contemplate, 
O'erflow with joy by a full sympathie 
With that worlds spright, and blesse our own estate, 
Praising the fount of all felicitie, 
The lovely light of the blest Deitie. 
Vain mortals think on this, and raise your mind 
Above the bodies life ; strike through the skie 
With piercing throbs and sighs, that you may find 
His face. Base fleshly fumes your drowsie eyes thus 
blind." 

(III. i. 31-33.) 

In Giles Fletcher's " Christ's Triumph after 
Death " the most elaborate attempt is made to 
convey the idea of the blessedness of the union 
of the soul with God through the pleasure of 
mere sense and at the same time to show how 
the object with which the soul is joined is in 
every respect a super-sensible entity. At first 
the blessedness of the soul's life in heaven is 
presented both as a pleasurable enjoyment of 



THEORY OF LOVE 101 

the sense of sight, of hearing, and even that of 
smell, and as a more spiritual pleasure in the 
exercise of the faculties of understanding and 
will. Speaking of the joy of those souls that 
ever hold 

" Their eyes on Him, whose graces manifold 
The more they doe behold, the more they would behold," 

Fletcher says : 

" Their sight drinkes lovely fires in at their eyes, 
Their braine sweet incense with fine breath accloyes, 
That on God's sweating altar burning lies ; 
Their hungrie eares feede on the heav'nly noyse, 
That angels sing, to tell their untould joyes ; 
Their understanding, naked truth ; their wills 
The all, and selfe-sumcient Goodnesse, fills : 
That nothing here is wanting, but the want of ills." 

(Stz. 34.) 

Here the progression in the scale of pleasures is 
from those of the senses to those of the mind. 

But Fletcher presents this union as even a 
more intimate experience of the soul. His is 
the most elaborate attempt in English poetry 
to describe the nature of the participation of 
the soul in the beauty of the ultimate reality, 
according to the Platonic notion of the partici- 
pation of an object in its idea. After three 
stanzas descriptive of the state of absolute 



102 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

freedom from cares of life which reigns in heaven 
(stz. 35-37), Fletcher passes on to a descrip- 
tion of God — the " Idea Beatificall," as he 
names Him — in accordance with the Platonic 
notion of the highest principle. The One : 

" In midst of this citie cselestiall, 
Whear the Eternall Temple should have rose, 
Light'ned the Idea Beatificall : 
End, and beginning of each thing that growes ; 
Whose selfe no end, nor yet beginning knowes; 
That hath no eyes to see, nor ears to heare ; 
Yet sees, and heares, and is all-eye, all-eare ; 
That nowhear is contain'd, and yet is every whear : 

" Changer of all things, yet immutable ; 
Before and after all, the first and last ; 
That, mooving all, is yet immoveable ; 
Great without quantitie : in Whose forecast 
Things past are present, things to come are past ; 
Swift without motion ; to Whose open eye 
The hearts of wicked men unbrested lie ; 
At once absent and present to them, f arre, and nigh." 

(Stz. 39-40.) 

He then goes on to explain what the Idea is not. 
It is nothing that can be known by sense. It 
is no flaming lustre, no harmony of sounds, no 
ambrosial feast for the appetite, no odor, no soft 
embrace, nor any sensual pleasure. And yet 
within the soul of the beholder it is known 



THEORY OF LOVE 103 

as an inward feast, a harmony, a light, a sound, 
a sweet perfume, and entire embrace. Thus 
he writes : 

" It is no flaming lustre, made of light ; 
No sweet concent, as well-tim'd harmonie ; 
Ambrosia, for to feast the appetite, 
Or flowrie odour, mixt with spicerie ; 
No soft embrace, or pleasure bodily ; 
And yet it is a kinde of inward feast, 
A harmony, that sounds within the brest, 
An odour, light, embrace, in which the soule doth rest. 

" A heav'nly feast, no hunger can consume ; 
A light unseene, yet shines in every place ; 
A sound, no time can steale ; a sweet perfume 
No winds can scatter ; an intire embrace 
That no satietie can ere unlace." 

(Stz. 41-42.) 

Such was the powerful hold of the doctrines 
of Platonism upon the minds of these reli- 
gious poets. Strong as were the forces leading 
them into a degenerate form of Christian love, 
these were overcome by the one fundamental 
conception of Platonism that the highest love 
the soul can know is the love of a purely intel- 
lectual principle of beauty and goodness ; and 
that this love is one in which passion and 
reason are wedded into the one supreme 



104 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

desire of the seeker after wisdom and beauty. 
Such a conception saved a large body of 
English poetry from degenerating into that 
form of erotic mysticism which Crashaw's later 
poems reveal; and in which there is no eleva- 
tion of the mind away from the lower range of 
sense enjoyment, but only an introversion of the 
physical life into the intimacies of spiritual 
experience. 

II. EARTHLY LOVE 

The influence of Platonism upon the love 
poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centu- 
ries in England is felt in two distinct forms. 
In the first place, the teachings of that phi- 
losophy were used to explain and dignify the 
conception of love as a passion having its 
source in a desire for the enjoyment of beauty; 
and in the second place, the emphasis laid by 
Platonism upon the function of the soul as op-'j 
posed to the senses resulted in a tendency to 
treat love as a purely spiritual passion devoid 
of all sensuous pleasure. In the first phase the 
teachings of Platonic theory were made to ren- 
der service according to the conventional love 
theory known as Petrarchism ;- and in its second 



THEORY OF LOVE 105 

phase Platonism contributed its share in keep- 
ing alive the so-called metaphysical mood of 
the seventeenth-century lyric. 

According to the conventional method of 
Petrarchism, the object of the poet's love was 
always a lady of great beauty and spotless 
virtue, and of a correspondingly great cruelty. 
Hence the subjects of the Petrarchian love 
poem were either the praise of the mistress's 
beauty or an account of the torment of soul 
caused by her heartless indifference. By apply- 
ing the doctrines of Platonism to this conven- 
tional manner, a way was found to explain 
upon a seemingly philosophic basis the power 
of the lover's passion and of beauty as its 
exciting cause. The best example in English 
of this application of Platonic theory is 
Spenser's two hymns, — " An Hymne in 
Honour of Love " and " An Hymne in Honour" 
of Beautie." 

The professed aim of Spenser in these hymns 
differs in no wise from the purpose of the Pe- 
trarchian lover. Both are written to ease the 
torments of an unrequited passion. In the 
" Hymne in Honour of Love " he addresses love 
in his invocation : 



106 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETEY 

" Love, that long since hast to thy mighty powre, 
Perforce subdude my poore captived hart, 
And raging now therein with restlesse stowre, 
Doest tyrannize in everie weaker part ; 
Faine would I seeke to ease my bitter smart, 
By any service I might do to thee, 
Or ought that else might to thee pleasing bee." 

(11. 4-10.) 

In his closing stanzas he expresses the wish of 
coming at last to the object of his desire. 
(11. 298-300.) In the " Hymne in Honour of 
Beautie," he openly confesses a desire that 
through his hymn 

" It may so please that she at length will streame 
Some deaw of grace, into my withered hart, 
After long sorrow and consuming smart." 

(11. 29-31.) 

The only respect in which these hymns differ 
from the mass of love poetry of their time 
is in the method by which Spenser treated the 
common subject of the poetical amorists of the 
Renaissance. In singing the praises of love 
and beauty he drew upon the doctrines of 
Italian Platonism, and by the power of his 
own genius blended the purely expository and 
lyrical strains so that at times it is difficult to 
separate them. The presence of Platonic doc- 



THEORY OF LOVE 107 

trine, however, is felt in the dignified treatment 
of the passion of love and of beauty. 

In the " Hymne in Honour of Love " love is 
described as no merely cruel passion inflicted 
by the tyrannical Cupid of the amorist, but as 
the manifestation in man of the great inform- 
ing power which brought the universe out of 
chaos and which now maintains it in order and 
concord. According to Ficino, the greatest 
representative of Italian Platonism during the 
Renaissance, one truth established by the speech 
of Eryximachus in the "Symposium" is that 
love is the creator and preserver of all things. 
" Through this," Ficino says in his " Commen- 
tarium in Convivium," " fire moves air by shar- 
ing its heat ; the air moves the water, the water 
moves the earth; and vice versa the earth draws 
the water to itself; water, the air ; and the air, 
the fire. Plants and trees also beget their like 
because of a desire of propagating their seed. 
Animals, brutes, and men are allured «~by-the 
_same desire to beget offspring. " (II I. 2 . ) And 
in summing up his discussion he says, " There- 
fore all parts of the universe, since they are the 
work of one artificer and are members of the 
same mechanism like to one another both in 



108 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

being and in life, are linked together by a cer- 
tain mutual love, so that love may be rightly 
declared the perpetual bond of the universe and 
the unmoving support of its parts and the firm 
basis of the whole mechanism." (III. 3.) Hold- 
ing to this conception of love Spenser comes to 
a praise of the 

" Great god of might, that reignest in the mynd, 
And all the bodie to thy hest doest frame," 

(11. 46-47.) 

with an explanation of His power as the creating 
and sustaining spirit of the universe. Before 
the world was created love moved over the 
warring elements of chaos and arranged them 
in the order they now obey. 

" Then through the world his way he gan to take, 
The world that was not till he did it make ; 
Whose sundrie parts he from them selves did sever, 
The which before had lyen confused ever, 

" The earth, the ayre, the water, and the fyre, 
Then gan to raunge them selves in huge array, 
And with contrary forces to conspyre 
Each against other, by all meanes they may, 
Threatning their owne confusion and decay : 
Ayre hated earth, and water hated fyre, 
Till Love relented their rebellious yre. 



THEORY OF LOVE 109 

" He then them tooke, and tempering goodly well 
Their contrary dislikes with loved meanes, 
Did place them all in order, and compell 
To keepe them selves within their sundrie raines, 
Together linkt with Adamantine chaines." 

(11. 77-92.) 

The second subject which was treated in the 
light of Platonism was that of beauty. In the 
"Hymne in Honour of Beautie" the topic is 
treated from three points of view. First, the 
" Hymne" outlines a general theory of aesthetics 
to account for the presence of beauty in the 
universe lying without us (11. 32-87) ; second, 
it explains the ground of reason for the beauty 
to be found in the human body (11. 88-164) ; 
and third, it accounts for the exaggerated 
notion which the lover has of his beloved's 
physical perfections. (11. 214-270.) 

Spenser's general theory of sesthetics is a 
blending of two suggestions he found in his 
study of Platonism. According to Ficino, 
beauty is a spiritual thing, the splendor of 
God's light shining in all things. (II. 5 ; 
V. 4.) This conception is based upon the idea 
that the universe is an emanation of God's 
spirit, and that beauty is the lively grace of the 
divine light of God shining in matter. (V. 6.) 



110 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

But according to another view, the universe is 
conceived as the objective work of an artificer, 
working according to a pattern. "The work 
of the creator," says Plato in the " Tima3us " 
(28, 29), " whenever he looks to the unchange- 
able and fashions the form and the nature of 
his work after an unchangeable pattern, must 
necessarily be made fair and perfect. ... If 
the world be indeed fair and the artificer good, 
it is manifest that he must have looked to that 
which is eternal. . . . for the world is the fair- 
est of creations and he is the best of causes." 
By blending these ideas Spenser was able to 
conceive of God as creating the world after a 
pattern of ideal beauty, which, by virtue of 
its infusion into matter, is the source of that 
lively grace which the objects called beautiful 
possess. At first he presents the view of crea- 
tion which is more in accordance with the 
Mosaic account, 

" What time this worlds great workmaister did cast 
To make al things, such as we now behold : 
It seemes that he before his eyes had plast 
A goodly Paterae to whose perfect mould, 
He fashioned them as comely as he could, 
That now so f aire and seemely they appeare, 
As nought may be amended any wheare. 



THEORY OF LOVE 111 

" That wondrous Paterne 

***** 
Is perfect Beautie, which all men adore, 
Whose face and feature doth so much excell 
All mortall sence, that none the same may tell." 

(11. 32-45.) 

Spenser now passes on to the theory of the 

infusion of beauty in matter, by which its 

grossness is refined and quickened, as it were, 

into life. 

" Thereof as every earthly thing partakes, 
Or more or lesse by influence divine, 
So it more faire accordingly it makes, 
And the grosse matter of this earthly myne, 
Which clotheth it, thereafter doth refyne, 
Doing away the drosse which dims the light 
Of that faire beame, which therein is empight. 

" For through infusion of celestiall powre, 
The duller earth it quickneth with delight 
And life-full spirits privily doth powre 
Through all the parts, that to the looker's sight 
They seeme to please. That is thy soveraine might, 
O Cyprian Queene, which flowing from the beame 
Of thy bright starre, then into them doest streame." 

(11. 46-59.) 

At this point of his " Hymne " Spenser pauses 
to refute the idea that beauty is 

" An outward shew of things, that onely seeme " 

(1.94.) 



112 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

His pausing to overthrow such an idea of 
beauty is quite in the manner of the scientific 
expositor in the Italian treatises and dialogues 
written throughout the Renaissance. Ficino, 
for instance, combats the idea, which he says 
some hold, that beauty is nothing but the pro- 
portion of the various parts of an object with 
a certain sweetness of color. (V. 3.) In like 
manner Spenser says it is the idle wit that iden- 
tifies beauty with proportion and color, both of 
which pass away. 

" How vainely then doe ydle wits invent, 
That beautie is nought else, but mixture made 
Of colours faire, and goodly temp'rament, 
Of pure complexions, that shall quickly fade 
And passe away, like to a sommers shade, 
Or that it is but comely composition 
Of parts well measurd, with meet disposition." 

(11. 67-73.) 
Spenser overthrows this contention by doubt- 
ing the power of mere color and superficial 
proportion to stir the soul of man. (11. 74-87.) 
He has proved the power of beauty only too 
well to maintain such a theory. He thus seeks 
for the source of its power in the soul. 

The Platonic theory of beauty teaches that 
the beauty of the body is a result of the 



THEORY OF LOVE 113 

formative energy of the soul. According to 
Ficino, the soul has descended from heaven and 
has framed a body in which to dwell. Before 
its descent it conceives a certain plan for the 
forming of a body ; and if on earth it finds 
material favorable for its work and sufficiently 
plastic, its earthly body is very similar to its 
celestial one, hence it is beautiful. (VI. 6.) 
In Spenser this conception underlies his account 
of the descent of the soul from God to earth. 

" For when the soule, the which derived was 
At first, out of that great immortall Spright, 
By whom all live to love, whilome did pas 
Downe from the top of purest heavens hight, 
To be embodied here, it then tooke light 
And lively spirits from that fayrest starre, 
Which lights the world forth from his firie carre. 

" Which powre retayning still or more or lesse, 
When she in fleshly seede is eft enraced, 
Through every part she doth the same impresse, 
According as the heavens have her graced, 
And frames her house, in which she will be placed, 
Fit for her selfe, adorning it with spoyle 
Of th' heavenly riches, which she robd ere why le. 

¥fc *9ff ¥fc rfc $fc 

" So every spirit, as it is most pure, 
And hath in it the more of heavenly light, 
So it the fairer bodie doth procure 

i 



114 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

To habit in, and it more fairely dight 
With chearefull grace and amiable sight. 
For of the soule the bodie forme doth take : 
For soul is forme, and doth the bodie make." 

(11. 109-136.) 

The obvious objection which one might make 
to this theory, that it does not cover the whole 
ground inasmuch as it could never account 
for the fact of the existence of a good soul in 
any but a beautiful form, was answered by the 
further explanation that when the matter of 
which the soul makes its body is unyielding, 
the soul must content itself with a less beau- 
tiful form. (Ficino, VI. 6.) Thus Spenser 
adds : 

" Yet oft it f alles, that many a gentle mynd 
Dwels in deformed tabernacle drownd, 
Either by chaunce, against the course of kynd, 
Or through unaptnesse in the substance sownd, 
Which it assumed of some stubborne grownd, 
That will not yield unto her formes direction, 
But is perform'd with some foule imperfection." 

(11. 144-150.) 

After an exhortation to the "faire Dames" 
to keep their souls unspotted (11. 165-200), 
Spenser outlines the true manner of love and in 
the course of his poem he accounts for that mani- 
festation of power which the beloved's beauty 



THEORY OF LOVE 115 

has over the mind of the lover. According to 
Ficino, true lovers are those whose souls have 
departed from heaven under the same astral 
influences and who, accordingly, are informed 
with the same idea in imitation of which they 
frame their earthly bodies. (VI. 6.) Thus 
Spenser writes that love is not a matter of 
chance, but a union of souls ordained by 
heaven. 

" For Love is a celestiall harmonie, 
Of likely harts composd of starres concent, 
Which joyne together in sweet sympathie, 
To work ech others joy and true content, 
Which they have harbourd since their first descent 
Out of their heavenly bowres, where they did see 
And know ech other here belov'd to bee. 

" Then wrong it were that any other twaine 
Should in loves gentle band combyned bee, 
But those whom heaven did at first ordaine, 
And made out of one mould the more t' agree : 
For all that like the beautie which they see, 
Streight do not love : for love is not so light, 
As straight to burne at first beholders sight." 

(11. 200-213.) 

He then explains the Platonist's views of 
love as a passion. Ficino had stated that the 
lover is not satisfied with the mere visual image 
of the beloved, but refashions it in accordance 



116 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

with the idea of the beloved which he has ; 
for the two souls departing from heaven at the 
same time were informed with the same idea. 
The lover, then, when he beholds the person of 
the beloved, sees a form which has been made 
more in conformity with the idea than his own 
body has ; consequently he loves it, and by 
refining the visual image of the beloved from 
all the grossness of sense, he beholds in it the 
idea of his own soul and that of the beloved; 
and in the light of this idea he praises the 
beloved's beauty. (VI. 6.) So Spenser: 

" But they which love indeede, looke otherwise, 
With pure regard and spotlesse true intent, 
Drawing out of the object of their eyes, 
A more refyned forme, which they present 
Unto their mind, voide of all blemishment ; 
Which it reducing to her first perfection, 
Beholdeth free from fleshes frayle infection." 

(11. 214-220.) 

Here there is no distinction of lover and 
beloved ; but soon Spenser passes on to con- 
sider the subject from the lover's standpoint : 

"And then conforming it unto the light, 
Which in it selfe it hath remaining still 
Of that first Sunne, yet sparckling in his sight, 
Thereof he fashions in his higher skill, 



THEORY OF LOVE 117 

An heavenly beautie to his fancies will, 

And it embracing in his mind entyre, 

The mirrour of his owne thought doth admyre. 

"Which seeing now so inly faire to be, 
As outward it appeareth to the eye, 
And with his spirits proportion to agree, 
He thereon fixeth all his fantasie, 
And fully setteth his felicitie, 
Counting it fairer, then it is indeede, 
And yet indeede her f airenesse doth exceede." 

(11. 221-234.) 

With a description of the many beauties the 
lover sees in the beloved — the thousands of 
graces that make delight on her forehead — the 
poem ends. (11. 235-270.) 

The feature in this theory of Platonism which 
appealed to Spenser was the high nature of the 
beauty seen in comeliness of form, as explained 
by its doctrine of aesthetics. A sense of beauty 
as a spiritual quality spreading its divine ra- 
diance over the objects of the outward world 
envelops the poem in a golden haze of softened 
feeling characteristic of Spenser's poetic manner. 
The scientific terms of the Platonic theorist melt 
away into the gentle flow of his verse. The 
soul being informed with its idea, as Ficino 
had put it, has become in his " Hymne in 



118 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

Honour of Beautie " that " faire lampe " which 
has " resemblence of that heavenly light" of 
beauty ( 11. 102, 124) ; or the idea of beauty in 
the soul is spoken of as 

"the light 
Which in it selfe it hath remaining still ; " 

(11. 221-222.) 

or, as the lover's " spirits proportion." 

In accordance with the same sense of beauty 
Spenser in the " Hymne in Honour of Love " 
stops to explain away the cruelty which love 
seems to show in afflicting him, an innocent 
sufferer, by calling attention to the fact that 
such suffering is necessary to try the lover's 
sincerity in his worship of so high a thing as 
the beauty of his beloved. Love is not physi- 
cal desire, but a soaring of the mind to a sight 
of that high beauty, 

" For love is Lord of truth and loialtie, 

Lifting himselfe out of the lowly dust, 

On golden plumes up to the purest skie, 

Above the reach of loathly sinfull lust, 

***** 

" Such is the powre of that sweet passion, 
That it all sordid basenesse doth expell, 
And the refyned mynd doth newly fashion 
Unto a fairer forme which now doth dwell 



THEORY OF LOVE 119 

In his high thought, that would it selfe excell; 
Which he beholding still with constant sight, 
Admires the mirrour of so heavenly light." 

(11. 179-199.) 

And even though the lover may not win the 
good graces of his lady, he is happy in the N sight 
of her beauty. 

" And though he do not win his wish to end, 
Yet thus f arre happie he him selfe doth weene, 
That heavens such happie grace did to him lend, 
No thing on earth so heavenly, to have seene, 
His harts enshrined saint, his heavens queene, 
Fairer then fairest, in his fayning eye, 
Whose sole aspect he counts felicitye." 

(11. 214-220.) 

Because of this love of beauty, Spenser was 
able to find more material in the Renaissance 
criticism of Platonic aesthetics for his " Hymne 
in Honour of Beautie " than in the correspond- 
ing hymn on love. Besides the conception 
of the creative power of love, his " Hymne in 
Honour of Love " draws upon a few sugges- 
tions which could dignify the power of the 
passion. The saying of Diotima to Socrates in 
the " Symposium," — " Marvel not then at the 
love which all men have of their offspring ; for 
that universal love and interest is for the sake 



120 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

of immortality" (208) — is made to do service 
in differentiating the passion of love in men 
from that in beasts. By satisfying physical 
desire beasts 

" all do live, and moved are 
To multiply the likenesse of their kynd, 
Whilest they seeke onely, without further care, 
To quench the flame, which they in burning fynd : 
But man, that breathes a more immortal inynd, 
Not for lusts sake, but for eternitie, 
Seekes to enlarge his lasting progenie." 

(11. 102-109.) 

Further, to add a sense of mystery to the 
nativity of the god of love, Spenser refers to 
the myth of Penia and Poros, and also in the 
manner of the Platonist tries to reconcile two 
contrary assertions about the mysterious nature 
of love's birth. In Diotima's account of " the 
lesser mysteries of love," she says that love is 
the offspring of the god Poros or Plenty, and of 
Penia or Poverty. (" Symposium," 203.) In 
Phsedrus's oration on love he began by affirm- 
ing that " Love is a mighty god, and wonderful 
among gods and men, but especially wonderful 
in his birth. For he is the eldest of the gods." 
(" Symposium," 178.) Agathon, however, dif- 
fers from his friend Phaedrus in saying that love 



THEORY OF LOVE 121 

is the youngest of the gods. (" Symposium," 
195.) This disagreement was a source of per- 
plexity to the Platonist of the Renaissance ; 
thus Ficino gives a division of his commentary 
to a reconciliation of these statements. (V. 10.) 
He solves the difficulty by stating that when 
the Creator conceived the order of angels, with 
whom Ficino identifies the gods of ancient 
mythology, the love guiding God was before 
the angels, hence is the most ancient of the 
gods ; but when the created angelic intelli- 
gences turned in their love to the Creator, the 
impelling love was the youngest, coming after 
the creation of the angels. According to these 
notions of the nativity of the god of love, 
Spenser opens his "Hymne." 

" Great god of might, that reignest in the mynd, 
And all the bodie to thy hest doest frame, 
Victor of gods, subduer of mankynd, 
That doest the Lions and fell Tigers tame, 
Making their cruell rage thy scornef ull game, 
And in their roring taking great delight ; 
Who can expresse the glorie of thy might ? 

" Or who alive can perfectly declare, 
The wondrous cradle of thine infancie? 
When thy great mother Venus first thee bare, 
Begot of Plentie and of Penurie, 



122 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

Though elder then thine owne nativitie : 
And yet a chyld, renewing still thy yeares ; 
And yet the eldest of the heavenly Peares." 

(11. 46-59.) 

Spenser's " Hymnes " are the most compre- 
hensive exposition of love in the light of Pla- 
tonic theory in English. The attempt, however, 
which he made to place love upon a basis of 
philosophic fact is imitated in a much less prom- 
inent way in other poets. Spenser himself refers 
to the subject in " Colin Clouts Come Home 
Againe." In that poem Colin unfolds to Cuddy 
the high nature of love's perfection. At the 
court, he says, love is the all-engrossing topic 
(11. 778-786); but it is love so shamefully licen- 
tious that its " mightie mysteries " are profaned. 
(1. 790.) Love, however, is a religious thing 
and should be so conceived. To support this 
statement Colin explains the creative power of 
love manifest throughout the wide range of 
nature (11. 843-868) and points out that in 
man it is a love of beauty. (11. 869-880). 

In a few of Jonson's masques there are slight 
attempts to dignify the subject of love in the 
manner of Spenser's " Hymnes." In " The 
Masque of Beauty " love is described as the 



THEORY OF LOVE 123 

creator of the universe, and beauty is mentioned 
as that for which the world was created. In 
one of the hymns occurs this stanza : 

" When Love at first, did move 
From out of Chaos, brightned 
So was the world, and lightned 
As now. 

1. Echo. As now ! 

2. Echo. As now! 
Yield Night, then to the light, 
As Blackness hath to Beauty : 
Which is but the same duty. 
It was for Beauty that the world was made, 
And where she reigns, Love's lights admit no shade." 

In a second song a reference is made to the 
mysterious nativity of love. 

" So Beauty on the waters stood, 
When Love had sever'd earth from flood ! 
So when he parted air from fire, 
He did with concord all inspire ! 
And then a motion he them taught, 
That elder than himself was thought. 
Which thought was, yet, the child of earth, 
For Love is elder than his birth." 

In " Love's Triumph Through Callipolis " the 
same ideas appear. In this masque, after the 
band of sensual lovers has been driven from 
the suburbs of the City of Beauty (Callipolis), 



124 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

and a lustration of the place has followed, 
Euclia, or " a fair glory, appears in the heavens, 
singing an applausive Song, or Paean of the 
whole." 

" So love emergent out of chaos brought 
The world to light ! 
And gently moving on the waters, wrought 
All form to sight ! 
Love's appetite 
Did beauty first excite : 
And left imprinted in the air 
These signatures of good and fair, 
Which since have flow'd, flow'd forth upon the sense 
To wonder first, and then to excellence, 
By virtue of divine intelligence ! " 

In the same masque love is denned in accord- 
ance with the myth of Penia and Poros : 

" Love is the right affection of the mind, 
The noble appetite of what is best : 
Desire of union with the thing design'd, 
But in fruition of it cannot rest. 

" The father Plenty is, the mother Want, 

Plenty the beauty which it wanteth draws ; 
Want yields itself : affording what is scant : 
So both affections are the union's cause." 

In " Love Freed From Ignorance and Folly " 
the sustaining power of love in keeping the 



THEORY OF LOVE 125 

parts of the universe in concord is used to com- 
bat the accusation that love is mere cruelty. 
Love, who is represented as a captive of the 
Sphynx, thus replies to the charge : 

" Cruel Sphynx, I rather strive 
How to keep the world alive, 
And uphold it ; without me, 
All again would chaos be." 

In "The Barriers" where Truth and Opinion 
— a division of the state of knowing according 
to its degree of certainty common in Plato as 
knowledge and opinion ("Republic," V. 476- 
478) — hold a discussion on marriage, an angel 
declares that 

" Eternal Unity behind her [i.e. Truth] shines, 
That fire and water, earth and air combines." 

Here under the name of Unity the true nature 
of love is indicated. 

In Drayton's seventh eclogue Batte replies 
to a charge of cruelty against love which is 
made by his fellow-shepherd, Borril, with the 

" substancyall ryme 
that to thy teeth sufficiently shall proove 
there is no power to be compard to love." 

His argument is that love is the great bond of 
the universe. 



126 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" What is Love but the desire 

of the thing that fancy pleaseth? 

A holy and resistlesse fiere 

weake and strong alike that ceaseth, 
which not heaven hath power to let 

Nor wise nature cannot smother, 
whereby Phcebus doth begette 
on the universal mother, 
that the everlasting chaine 
which together al things tied, 
and unmooved them retayne 
and by which they shall abide ; 
that concent we cleerely find 
all things doth together drawe, 
and so strong in every kinde 
subjects them to natures law. 
whose hie virtue number teaches 
in which every thing dooth moove, 
from the lowest depth that reaches 
to the height of heaven above." 

(11. 165-184.) 

A more common appropriation of the teach- 
ings of Platonism was made in the love lyrics 
— chiefly the sonnet — written in the Petrarch- 
ian manner. Petrarchism was as much a 
manner of writing sonnets as it was a method 
of making love. On its stylistic side it was 
characterized by the use of antitheses, puns, 
and especially of conceits. In the Platonic 
theory of love and beauty a certain amount of 



THEORY OF LOVE 127 

material was offered which could be reworked 
into a form suited for the compact brevity of 
the sonnet. Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare 
are the three chief sonnet writers of the last 
decade of the sixteenth century in whose 
work this phase of Platonism is to be found ; 
but its presence, though faint, can be felt in 
others. 

One way in which this theory was applied 
is found in the manner in which these poets 
speak of the beauty of their beloved. Plato 
has stated that wisdom is the most lovely of 
all ideas, and that, were there a visible image 
of her, she would be transporting. (" Phsedrus," 
250.) Sidney seizes upon this suggestion, and 
by identifying his Stella with wisdom he can 
frame a sonnet ending in a couplet that shall 
have the required epigrammatic point. He 
writes : 

" The wisest scholler of the wight most wise, 
By Phoebus doome, with sugred sentence sayes : 
That vertue if it- once meete with our eyes, 
Strange flames of love it in our soules would rayse. 
But for that man with paine this truth discries, 
While he each thing in sences ballances wayes, 
And so, nor will nor can behold these skyes, 
Which inward Sunne to heroicke mindes displaies. 



128 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

Vertue of late with vertuous care to stir 
Love of him self e, takes Stellas shape, that hee 
To mortal eyes might sweetly shine in her. 
It is most true, for since I did her see, 
Vertues great beautie in her face I prove, 
And finde defect ; for I doe burne in love." 

(xxv.) 

Shakespeare is able to praise the beauty of 
the subject of his sonnets by identifying him 
with the absolute beauty of the Platonic phi- 
losophy, and by describing him in accordance 
with this notion. Thus he confesses that his 
argument is simply the fair, kind, and true, back 
of which statement may be inferred the theory 
upheld by Platonism that the good, the beau- 
tiful, and the true are but different phases of 
one reality. His love, he says, cannot be called 
idolatry because his songs are directed to this 
theme, for only in his friend are these three 
themes united into one. 

" Let not my love be calPd idolatry, 
Nor my beloved as an idol show, 
Since all alike my songs and praises be 
To one, of one, still such, and ever so. 
Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind, 
Still constant in a wondrous excellence; 
Therefore my verse to constancy confined, 
One thing expressing, leaves out difference. 



THEORY OF LOVE 129 

'Fair, kind, and true ' is all my argument, 

' Fair, kind, and true ' varying to other words ; 

And in this change is my invention spent, 

Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords. 

4 Fair, kind, and true,' have often liv'd alone, 

Which three, till now, never kept seat in one." 

(cv.) 

In another sonnet one phase of this argument 
is given a detailed treatment, and the poet's 
object is to praise the beauty of his friend by 
describing its contrast with the beauty of earth, 
just as if he were speaking of absolute beauty. 
In this sonnet he uses the Platonic phraseology 
of the substance and the shadow, by which he 
means first, the reality that makes a thing what 
it is, the substance, not the matter or stuff of 
which it is made ; and second, the reflection of 
that reality in the objective world, the shadow 
of the substance, not the obscuration of light. 1 
He thus writes of his friend's beauty as if it 
were the substance of beauty, beauty absolute, 
of which all other beauty is but a reflection. 

"What is your substance, whereof are you made, 
That millions of strange shadows on you tend? 
Since every one hath, every one, one shade, 

1 Poems of Shakespeare. Ed. George Wyndham, p. 



130 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

And you, but one, can every shadow lend. 

Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit 

Is poorly imitated after you ; 

On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set, 

And you in Grecian tires are painted new : 

Speak of the spring and foison of the year, 

The one doth shadow of your beauty show, 

The other as your bounty doth appear ; 

And you in every blessed shape we know, 

In all external grace you have some part, 

But you like none, none you, for constant heart." 

(liii.) 
Spenser, too, praises his beloved by conceiv- 
ing her as absolute beauty, of which all other 
objects are but shadows. In the light of her 
beauty all the glory of the world appears but 
a vain show. 

" My hungry eyes through greedy covetize, 
still to behold the object of their paine : 
with no contentment can themselves suffize. 
but having pine and having not complaine. 

For lacking it they cannot lyfe sustayne, 
and having it they gaze on it the more : 
in their amazement lyke Narcissus vaine 
whose eyes him starv'd : so plenty makes me poore. 

Yet are mine eyes so filled with the store 

of that faire sight, that nothing else they brooke, 
but lothe the things which they did like before, 
and can no more endure on them to looke. 

All this worlds glory seemeth vayne to me, 
and all their showes but shadowes saving she." 

(xxxv.) 



THEORY OF LOVE 131 

In George Daniel the idea of the substance 
and shadow again occurs. He says that it is 
enough for him if he may behold his mistress's 
face, although others may boast of her favors ; 
for in contemplating her glories he sees how all 
other forms are but empty shadows of her per- 
fection. 

" It is Enough to me, 

If I her Face may see ; 
Let others boast her Favours, and pretend 

Huge Interests ; whilst I 

Adore her Modestie ; 
Which Tongues cannot deprave, nor Swords defend. 

***** 
" But while I bring 

My verse to Sing 
Her Glories, I am strucke with wonder, more ; 

And all the Formes I see, 

But Emptie Shadowes bee, 
Of that Perfection which I adore. 

" Be silent then, 

All Tongues of Men, 
To Celebrate the Sex : for if you fall 

To other Faces, you 

Wander, and but pursue 
Inferior objects, weake and partiall." 

(Ode xxiv.) 

A second tenet of Platonism which was re- 
worked into English love poetry was its con- 



132 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

ception of love. As Spenser had explained in 
his " Hymne in Honour of Beautie," true love 
has its source in the life of two souls in heaven. 
(11. 200-213.) Driimmond uses the idea to 
explain the purity of his love. 

" That learned Grecian, who did so excel 
In knowledge passing sense, that he is nam'd 
Of all the after-worlds divine, doth tell, 
That at the time when first our souls are fram'd, 
Ere in these mansions blind they come to dwell, 
They live bright rays of that eternal light, 
And others see, know, love, in heaven's great height, 
Not toil'd with aught to reason doth rebel. 
Most true it is, for straight at the first sight 
My mind me told, that in some other place 
It elsewhere saw the idea of that face, 
And lov'd a love of heavenly pure delight ; 
No wonder now I feel so fair a flame, 
Sith I her lov'd ere on this earth she came." 

(" Poems." First Pt., S. vii.) 

In Vaughan the same theory of love is again 
referred to as a proof of the poet's lofty passion. 
In " To Amoret. Walking in a Starry Evening," 
he says that even were her face a distant star 
shining upon him, he would be sure of a sympa- 
thy between it and himself, because their minds 
were united in love by no accident or chance 
of sight, but were designed for one another. 



THEORY OF LOVE 133 

" But, Anioret, such is my fate, 
That if thy face a star 
Had shin'd from far, 
I am persuaded in that state, 
'Twixt thee and me, 
Of some predestin'd sympathy. 

" For sure such two conspiring minds, 
Which no accident, or sight, 
Did thus unite ; 
Whom no distance can confine 

Start, or decline, 
One for another were design'd." 

(Stzs. 3, 4.) 

In a second lyric, " A Song to Amoret," he 

describes his love as superior to that which a 

" mighty amorist " could give, because it is 

a love that was born with his soul in heaven. 

" For all these arts I'd not believe, 

— No, though he should be thine — 
The mighty amorist could give 
So rich a heart as mine. 

" Fortune and beauty thou might find, 
And greater men than I : 
By my true resolved mind 
They never shall come nigh. 

" For I not for an hour did love, 

Or for a day desire, 

But with my soul had from above 

This endless, holy fire." 

(Stzs. 4-6.) 



134 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

Thus far the tenets of Platonic theory have 

been used in a more or less direct way ; but in 

several instances the Platonic idea is present 

only in the writer's mind, and the reader is left 

to unravel it by his own ingenuity. Thus 

Shakespeare urges his friend to marry because 

in his death truth and beauty will both end — 

a possible inference being that his friend is 

ideal beauty. 

" Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck ; 
And yet methinks I have Astronomy, 
But not to tell of good, or evil luck, 
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality; 
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell, 
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind, 
Or say with Princes if it shall go well, 
By oft predict that I in heaven find : 
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive, 
And, constant stars, in them I read such art 
As truth and beauty shall together thrive, 
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert ; 
Or else of thee this I prognosticate : 
Thy end is Truth's and Beauty's doom and date." 

(xiv.) 

In another sonnet Shakespeare plays with words 
in an attempt to excuse his truant muse for not 
praising his friend's beauty. His muse may 
say that since his friend is true beauty he needs 
no praise. 



THEORY OF LOVE 135 

" O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends 
For thy neglect of truth in beauty dyed ? 
Both truth and beauty on my love depends ; 
So dost thou too, and therein dignified. 
Make answer, Muse ; wilt thou not haply say 
1 Truth needs no colour with his colour fix'd ; 
Beauty no pencil, beauty's truth to lay ; 
But best is best, if never intermix'd? ' " 

But so closely identified is the praise of his 
friend's beauty with the immortality conferred 
by poetry that Shakespeare cannot justly excuse 
the silence of his muse 

" Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb ? 
Excuse not silence so ; for't lies in thee 
To make him much outlive a gilded tomb, 
And to be praised of ages yet to be." 

(ci.) 

Again, Shakespeare describes how, when absent 

from his friend, he is able to play with the 

flowers as shadows of his friend's beauty. 

" They were but sweet, but figures of delight, 
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those. 
Yet seem'd it Winter still, and, you away, 
As with your shadow I with these did play." 

(xcviii.) 

In Spenser the lover is able to make an ap- 
peal for pity by reference to the Platonic con- 
ception of the idea of the beloved which the 
lover is supposed to behold in his soul. 



136 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" Leave lady in your glasse of christall clene, 

your goodly self e for evermore to vew ; 

and in my selfe, my inward selfe, I meane, 

most lively lyke behold your semblant Irew. 
Within my hart, though hardly it can shew, 

thing so divine to vew of earthly eye : 

the fayre Idea of your celestiall hew, 

and every part remaines immortally : 
And were it not that, through your cruelty, 

with sorrow dimmed and deformed it were : 

the goodly ymage of your visnomy, 

clearer than christall would therein appere. 

But if your selfe in me ye playne will see, 

remove the cause by which your fayre beames dark- 
ened be." 

(xlv.) 

The end which this conception of making 
love after the manner of the Platonist served 
was thought to be found in a purification of 
love. By praising the beauty of the beloved in 
such lofty terms the poet was able to set off 
the purity of his love from any connection with 
mere sensual desire. Thus Spenser testifies to 
the ennobling power of the beauty of his be- 
loved's eyes. 

" More then most f aire, full of the living fire 
Kindled above unto the maker neere : 
no eies but joyes, in which al powers conspire, 
that to the world naught else be counted deare. 
Thrugh your bright beams doth not ye blinded guest, 



THEORY OF LOVE 137 

shoot out his harts to base affections wound ; 
but Angels come to lead fraile mindes to rest 
in chast desires on heavenly beauty bound. 

You frame my thoughts and fashion me within, 
you stop my toung, and teach my hart to speake, 
you calme the storme that passion did begin, 
strong thrugh your cause, but by your vertue weak. 

Dark is the world, where your light shined never : 
well is he borne that may behold you ever." 

(viii.) 

In Sidney there is a direct reference to the 
power of Plato's thought to lead the mind 
from the desire with which he is struggling. 

" Your words, my freends me causelesly doe blame, 
My young minde marde whom love doth menace so : 

That Plato I have reade for nought, but if he tame 
Such coltish yeeres ; that to my birth I owe 
Nobler desires : " 

(xxi.) 

The application of the tenets of Platonic 
theory to the writing of love lyrics in the Pe- 
trarchian manner, however, was never anything 
more than a courtly way of making love through 
exaggerated conceit and fine writing. Fulke 
Greville saw clearly the relation between the 
love of woman and the love of the idea of her 
beauty. In the tenth sonnet of his " Caelica " 



138 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

he asks what can love find in a mind where all 
is passion; rather he says go back to 

" that heavenly quire 
Of Nature's riches, in her beauties placed, 
And there in contemplation feed desire, 
Which till it wonder, is not rightly graced ; 
For those sweet glories, which you do aspire, 
Must, as idea's, only be embraced, 
Since excellence in other forme enjoyed, 
Is by descending to her saints destroyed." 

The love of the idea of beauty, however, in its 
absolute nature is nowhere present in the mass 
of love lyrics written between 1590 and 1600. 
The term is used to give title to Drayton's 
" Idea," and to denominate the object of twelve 
sonnets addressed by Craig to " Idea "; and ana- 
grams on the French word for the term LTdee, 
Diella and Delia, are used to name two series 
of poems by Linche and Samuel Daniel, respec- 
tively. Crashaw's " Wishes " is addressed to " his 
(supposed) mistresse," as an idea. No better 
commentary on the whole movement can be 
made than these words of Spenser in which it is 
easily seen how the method conduced only to 
feeding the lower desires of the soul in love. 
Writing in 1596, in the midst of the period 



THEORY OF LOVE 139 

when sonnet writing was most popular in Eng- 
land, he says, speaking of his two "Hymnes ": 

" Having in the greener times of my youth, 
composed these former two Hymnes in the 
praise of Love and beautie, and finding that the 
same too much pleased those of like age and 
disposition, which being too vehemently caried 
with that kind of affection, do rather sucke out 
poyson to their strong passion, then hony to 
their honest delight, I was moved ... to call 
in the same. But being unable so to doe, by 
reason that many copies thereof were formerly 
scattered abroad, I resolved at least to amend, 
and by way of retraction to reforme them, mak- 
ing in stead of those two Hymnes of earthly or 
naturall love and beautie, two others of heavenly 
and celestiall." 

The great representative of Platonism in 
English poetry thus condemns the less, vital 
phase of Platonic thought. The great weak- 
ness of the theory lay in the fact that it had no 
moral significance ; and just here lay the 
great strength of Plato's ethics. Although 
preaching that beauty was a spiritual thing, 
this phase of Platonic aesthetics never blended 
with the conception of the beauty of moral 



HO PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

goodness. And it failed to do this because it 
is a theory not of Plato but of Plotinus, who 
throughout the period of the Renaissance was 
understood to expound the true meaning of 
Plato's thought. But Plato left no system of 
aesthetics; Plotinus, however, constructed a 
theory to account for beauty in its strictest 
sense. Now Ficino in his propaganda of Pla- 
tonic theory throughout the Renaissance in- 
terpreted Plato's " Symposium " in the light of 
Plotinus and thus in his commentary, the source 
of all Renaissance theorizing on love, is found 
the theory reflected in the English poets. This 
fusion of Plato's ethics with the aesthetics of 
Plotinus was not perfect ; and to the deep 
moral genius of Spenser's mind the disparity 
soon became evident. 

The Platonic theory of love had enabled the 
English poets to write about their passion as a 
desire of enjoying the spiritual quality of beauty 
in their beloved. In those poets in whom the 
Petrarchistic manner is evident, it is the object 
of love on which the attention centres; only in 
a slight way did they treat of the nature of love 
as a passion. The result of the discussion of 
love, as opened by Platonism, ended, however, 



THEORY OF LOVE 141 

in an attempt to place love upon a purely 
spiritual basis and to write about it as if it were 
a psychological fact that was to be known by 
analysis. A consideration of beauty, as the 
object of love, is absent ; attention is directed 
to the quality of the passion as one felt in the 
soul rather than by the sense ; and when the 
attraction of woman is present in this love it is 
carefully differentiated from the attraction of 
sex. In the body of love lyrics written in the 
seventeenth century the distinctive traits of 
this passion are clearly explained. 

The chief trait of this kind of love is that it 
concerns only the soul. The union of the lover 
and the beloved is simply a union of their souls 
which because of the high nature of the soul can 
triumph over time and space. The character of 
this union is described in Donne's "Ecstacy." 
The two lovers are described as sitting in 
silence, watching one another. While thus 
engaged their souls are so mysteriously mingled 
that they are mixed into one greater soul which 
is not subject to change. Even when the pas- 
sion descends from this height to the plane of 
human affections there is no essential change 
in the purity of the love. 



142 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" Where, like a pillow on a bed, 

A pregnant bank swell'd up, to rest 
The violet's reclining head, 
Sat we two, one another's best. 



As, 'twixt two equal armies, Fate 

Suspends uncertain victory, 
Our souls — which to advance their state, 

Were gone out — hung 'twixt her and me. 



" This ecstacy doth unperplex 

(We said), and tell us what we love ; 
We see by this, it was not sex ; 

We see, we saw not, what did move : 

" But as all several souls contain 

Mixture of things they know not what, 
Love these mix'd souls doth mix again, 
And makes both one, each this, and that. 



" When love with one another so 
Interanimates two souls, 
That abler soul, which thence doth flow, 
Defects of loneliness controls. 

" We then, who are this new soul, know, 
Of what we are composed, and made, 
For th 1 atomies of which we grow 

Are souls, whom no change can invade. 



THEORY OF LOVE 143 

" And if some lover, such as we 

Have heard this dialogue of one, 
Let him still mark us, he shall see 

Small change when we're to bodies gone." 

In a like strain Randolph in "A Platonic Elegy " 
praises his love as that founded on reason, not 
on sense. The true union in love, he says, is 
the meeting of essence with essence. 

" Thus they, whose reasons love, and not their sense, 
The spirits love ; thus one intelligence 
Reflects upon his like, and by chaste loves 
In the same sphere this and that angel moves. 



" When essence meets with essence, and souls join 
In mutual knots, that's the true nuptial twine. 
Such, lady, is my love, and such is true : 
All other love is to your sex, not you." 

(11. 31-34, 45-48. 

The great value which this purely spiritual 
love was supposed to possess was that it was 
unaffected either by time or distance. The 
union, not being one known to sense, could 
exist as well in the absence of the lovers as in 
the presence of both. This thought is a great 
comfort and is emphasized as the peculiarity in 
the lovers' passion that sets it apart from the 



144 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

vulgar kind. Thus Donne in the song, " Soul's 
Joy," consoles his beloved with the assurance 
that their souls may meet though their bodies 
be absent. 

" Soul's joy, now I am gone, 
And you alone, 

— Which cannot be, 
Since I must leave myself with thee, 

And carry thee with me — 
Yet when unto our eyes 
Absence denies 
Each other's sight, 
And makes to us a constant night, 
When others change to light ; 
give no way to grief, 
But let belief 
Of mutual love 
This wonder to the vulgar prove. 
Our bodies, not we move. 

" Let not thy wit be weep 

Words but sense deep ; 

For when we miss 
By distance our hope's joining bliss 

Even then our souls shall kiss ; 

Fools have no means to meet, 

But by their feet ; 

Why should our clay 
Over our spirits so much sway, 

To tie us to that way ? 

O give no way to grief etc." 



THEORY OF LOVE 145 

In his " Valediction Forbidding Mourning," 
Donne again recurs to the subject of separation 
and explains by the figure of the compass how 
their souls will be one. The love in which the 
mind is bent on the objects of sense cannot 
admit of absence ; but the love shared by 
Donne and his mistress is so refined that their 
souls suffer only an expansion and not separa- 
tion in absence. 

" Dull sublunary lover's love 

— Whose soul is sense — cannot admit 
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove 
The thing which elemented it. 

" But we by a love so far refined, 

That ourselves know not what it is, 
Inter-assured of the mind, 

Care less eyes, lips and hands to miss. 

"Our two souls therefore, which are one, 
Though I must go, endure not yet 
A breach, but an expansion, 
Like gold to airy thinness beat. 

" If they be two, they are two so 
As stiff twin compasses are two ; 
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show 
To move, but doth, if th' other do. 



146 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" And though it in the centre sit, 

Yet, when the other far doth roam, 
It leans, and hearkens after it, 

And grows erect, as that comes home." 

(Stzs. 4-8.) 

Even in death this love will still live. Thus 
Lord Herbert explains that his love has passed 
over into that of the soul, and it will be as im- 
mortal as the soul. 

" But since I must depart, and that our love 
Springing at first but in an earthly mould 
Transplanted to our souls, now doth remove 
Earthly affects, which time and distance would, 
Nothing now can our loves allay, 
Though as the better Spirits will, 
That both love us and know our ill, 
We do not either all the good we may. 
Thus when our Souls that must immortal be, 

For our loves cannot die, nor we (unless 
We die not both together) shall be free 
Unto their open and eternal peace. 
Sleep, Death's Embassador, and best 
Image, doth yours often so show, 
That I thereby must plainly know, 
Death unto us must be freedom and rest." 1 

The second characteristic of this love is that 
it is purely contemplative, informing the mind 
with knowledge rather than satisfying the 

1 " Poems of Lord Herbert of Cherbury," ed. John Chur- 
ton Collins, p. 24. 



THEORY OF LOVE 147 

senses with pleasure. Habington has left a 
poem entitled " To the World. The Perfec- 
tion of Love," in which he contrasts this love in 
which the soul is engaged with thoughts with 
the love of sense. 

" You who are earth, and cannot rise 

Above your sence, 
Boasting the envyed wealth which lyes 
Bright in your mistris' lips or eyes, 

Betray a pittyed eloquence. 

" That, which doth joyne our soules, so light 
And quicke doth move, 
That, like the eagle in his flight, 
It doth transcend all humane sight, 
Lost in the element of love. 

" You poets reach not this, who sing 

The praise of dust 
But kneaded, when by theft you bring 
The rose and lilly from the spring, 

T' adorne the wrinckled face of lust. 

" When we speake love, nor art, nor wit 

We glosse upon : 
Our soules engender, and beget 
Ideas which you counterfeit 

In your dull propagation. 

" While time seven ages shall disperse, 
Wee'le talke of love, 
And when our tongues hold no commerse, 



148 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

Our thoughts shall mutually converse ; 
And yet the blood no rebell prove. 

" And though we be of severall kind, 

Fit for offence : 
Yet are we so by love refin'd, 
From impure drosse we are all mind, 

Death could not more have conquer'd sence." 

By virtue of this contemplation in love the 
passion was freed from any disturbing element 
due to absence, just as the restriction of love 
to the soul had been thought to do. Vaughan 
boasts to Amoret that he can dispense with a 
sight of her face or with a kiss because when 
absent from her he can court the mind. 

" Just so base, sublunary lovers' hearts 
Fed on loose profane desires, 
May for an eye 
Or face comply : 
But those remov'd, they will as soon depart, 
And show their art, 
And painted fires. 

" Whilst I by pow'rful love, so much refin'd, 
That my absent soul the same is, 
Careless to miss 
A glance or kiss, 
Can with these elements of lust and sense 
Freely dispense, 
And court the mind." 



THEORY OF LOVE 149 

In the examples thus far given, the character 
of the passion as shared by lover and beloved has 
been merely described. There was an attempt 
made in some of this poetry to define love as 
if it were a something to be analyzed — a prod- 
uct, as it were, of psychological elaboration. 
Vaughan has indicated the two traits in the 
love lyrist of the seventeenth century, when he 
gives the following title to a lyric, — " To 
Amoret, of the Difference 'Twixt Him and 
Other Lovers, and What True Love Is." In 
defining " What True Love Is," the poets show 
that it cannot be desire, but is rather an essence 
pure in itself, and in one instance it is described 
as something unknowable either to sense or 
to mind. 

Donne has left a letter in verse "To the 
Countess of Huntingdon," in which he carefully 
explains how love cannot be desire. Sighing 
and moaning may be love, but it is love made 
in a weak way ; love should never cast one 
down, but should elevate. 

" I cannot feel the tempest of a frown ; 
I may be raised by love, but not thrown down ; 
Though I can pity those sigh twice a day, 
I hate that thing whispers itself away. 



150 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

Yet since all love is fever, who to trees 
Doth talk, doth yet in love's cold ague freeze. 
'Tis love, but with such fatal weakness made, 
That it destroys itself with its own shade." 

(11. 27-34.) 

At first love was mere desire, ignorant of its 

object ; but now love is a matter of the soul, 

and it is profane to call rages of passion love. 

" As all things were one nothing, dull and weak, 
Until this raw disorder'd heap did break, 
And several desires led parts away, 
Water declined with earth, the air did stay, 
Fire rose, and each from other but untied, 
Themselves unprison'd were and purified ; 
So was love, first in vast confusion hid, 
An unripe willingness which nothing did, 
A thirst, an appetite which had no ease, 
That found a want, but knew not what would please. 
What pretty innocence in those days moved ! 
Man ignorantly walk'd by her he loved ; 
Both sigh'd and interchanged a speaking eye ; 
Both trembled and were sick : both knew not why." 

(U. 37-51.) 

This state may well become this early age, but 

now 

11 passion is to woman's love, about, 
Nay, farther off, than when we first set out. 
It is not love that sueth, or doth contend ; 
Love either conquers, or but meets a friend ; 
Man's better part consists of purer fire, 
And finds itself allow 'd, ere it desire." 

(11. 55-60.) 



THEORY OF LOVE 151 

The reason for this lies in the fact that love 
begins in the soul, and not in the sight. 

" He much profanes whom valiant heats do move 
To style his wandering rage of passion, Love. 
Love that imparts in everything delight, 
Is fancied in the soul, not in the sight." 

(11. 125-128.) 

In Jonson's "Epode" in "The Forest," the same 

differentiation of love from passion is present, 

and an attempt is made to define love as an 

essence. The love of the present is nothing 

but raging passion. 

" The thing they here call Love, is blind desire, 
Arm'd with bow, shafts, and fire ; 
Inconstant, like the sea, of whence 'tis born, 
Rough, swelling, like a storm." 

True love, however, is an essence, a calmness, 

a peace. 

" Now, true love 
No such effects doth prove ; 
That is an essence far more gentle, fine, 
Pure, perfect, nay divine ; 

***** 

this bears no brands, nor darts, 
To murder different hearts, 
But in a calm, and godlike unity, 
Preserves community." 

In Donne in his " Love's Growth," there is an 
expression of doubt whether his love can be as 



152 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

pure as lie thought it was, because it seems to 
suffer an increase in the spring, and is not a 
thing without component elements. But if love 
is no quintessence, he says, it must be mixed 
with alien passions and thus not be pure. He 
silences his doubts, however, by explaining 
after the analogy of concentric rings of waves 
of water about the centre of disturbance how 
his love is one and unelemented. 

" I scarce believe my love to be so pure 

As I had thought it was, 

Because it doth endure 
Vicissitude, and season, as the grass ; 
Methinks I lied all winter, when I swore 
My love was infinite, if spring make it more. 

" But if this medicine, love, which cures all sorrow 
With more, not only be no quintessence, 
But mix'd of all stuffs, vexing soul, or sense, 
And of the sun his active vigour borrow, 

" Love's not so pure, and abstract as they use 
To say, which have no mistress but their Muse ; 
But as all else, being elemented too, 
Love sometimes would contemplate, sometimes do. 

¥fc $fc yfc 9fc s|c 

" If, as in water stirr'd more circles be 
Produced by one, love such additions take, 
Those like so many spheres but one heaven make, 
For they are all concentric unto thee." 

(I. 34, 35.) 



THEORY OF LOVE 153 

Again, in " The Dream," he fears the strength 
of his beloved's affection if it is mingled with 
a sense of fear, or shame, or honor. 

" That love is weak where fear's as strong as he ; 
T'is not all spirit, pure and brave, 
If mixture it of fear, shame, honour have ; " 

(I. 39.) 

This refinement of the subject of love is 
carried to an even greater excess. Love is such 
a passion that it can be defined only by nega- 
tives. It is above apprehension, because sense 
and soul both can know the object of their love. 
In the poem of Donne's " Negative Love," in 
which this idea is expressed, it is probable that 
the poet has in mind the description of The 
One which Plotinus outlines in the "Enneads." 
Summing up his discussion of The One, or The 
Good, in which he has pointed out how it is 
above intellect, Plotinus says: "If, however, 
anything is present with the good, it is present 
with it in a way transcending knowledge and 
intelligence and a cosensation of itself, since it 
has not anything different from itself. . . . 
On this account says Plato [in the " Parmeni- 
des," speaking of the one'] that neither language 
can describe, nor sense nor science apprehend 



154 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

it, because nothing can be predicated of it as 
present with it." (" Enneads," VI. vii. 41.) 
Transferring this idea of the transcendency of 
The One to his love, Donne had the form of 
thought for his lyric. 

" I never stoop'd so low, as they 
Which on an eye, cheek, lip, can prey ; 

Seldom to them which soar no higher 

Than virtue, or the mind to admire. 
For sense and understanding may 

Know what gives fuel to their fire ; 
My love, though silly, is more brave ; 
For may I miss whene'er I crave, 
If I know yet what I would have. 

u If that be simply perfectest, 
Which can by no way be express'd 

But negatives, my love is so. 

To all, which all love, I say no. 
If any who deciphers best, 

What we know not — ourselves — can know, 
Let him teach me that nothing. This 
As yet my ease and comfort is, 
Though 1 speed not, I cannot miss." 

This reference to the knowledge of self also 
occurs in Plotinus in the preceding sentence 
to the passage already extracted. " For the 
mandate," he says, " i know thyself,' was de- 
livered to those, who, on account of the multitude 



THEORY OF LOVE 155 

which they possess, find it requisite to enumer- 
ate themselves, and in order that by knowing 
the number and quality of the things contained 
in their essence, they may perceive that they 
have not a knowledge of all things, or, indeed, 
of anything [which they ought to know], and 
who are ignorant over what they ought to rule, 
and what is the characteristic of their nature." 
(VI. vii. 41.) 

This highly metaphysical conception of love, 
the character of which has been shown in a few 
selected examples, became in the course of 
time known as " Platonic Love." Scattered 
throughout the lyric poetry of the seventeenth 
century may be found certain poems labelled 
"Platonic Love." Their presence among the 
author's work is no testimony whatsoever that 
it is colored by any strain of Platonism, but 
merely signifies that at one time in his career 
the poet wrote love lyrics according to the 
prevailing manner of the time. For about 
1634 Platonic love was a court fad. Howell, 
writing under date of June 3, 1634, says : " The 
Court affords little News at present, but that 
there is a Love call'd Platonick Love which 
much sways there of late : it is a Love ab- 



156 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

stracted from all corporeal gross Impressions 
and sensual Appetite, but consists in Contem- 
plations and Ideas of the Mind, not in any 
carnal Fruition. This Love sets the Wits of 
the Town on work ; and they say there will be 
a Mask shortly of it, whereof Her Majesty and 
her Maids of Honour will be part." 1 

The masque referred to is D'Avenant's " The 
Temple of Love" (163-1). In Thomas Hey wood's 
"Love's Mistress or the Queen's Masque" (1640) 
the myth of Cupid and Psyche is interpreted in 
accordance with the notion of Platonic love ; 
and in D'Avenant's " Platonick Lovers " (1636) 
the subject of Platonic love is ridiculed. It is 
probable that the rise of this custom at the court 
was due to the presence of Henrietta Maria, the 
queen of Charles I. Margaret of Valois had 
made Platonic love known in France ; and had 
shown how licentiousness of conduct was com- 
patible with its practice. " She had a high 
harmonious soul," writes Howell, 2 "much ad- 
dicted to music and the sweets of love, and 
oftentimes in a Platonic way ; She would have 
this Motto often in her mouth ; Voulez vous 

i Howell's "Letters," Bk. I, sect. 6, let. XV. 
2 "Lustra Ludovicii," p. 26. London, 1646. 



THEORY OF LOVE 157 

cesser oVaymerf possedez la chose aymee. . . . 
She had strains of humors and transcendencies 
beyond the vulgar, and delighted to be call'd 
Venus Urania ." It is probable that the young 
queen wished to follow such an example and 
made known to the English court this new 
way of love gallantry. The practice of mak- 
ing love in the Platonic way grew so popular 
at any rate as to become a question of serious 
discussion. John Norris says, "Platonic Love is 
a thing in every Bodies Mouth," and after com- 
paring it with the love described by Plato in 
the " Symposium," he concludes, " But why 
this should be call'd by the name of Platonic 
Love, the best reason that I know of, is because 
People will have it so." 1 Algernon Sidney has 
left an account of love as a desire of enjoying 
beauty. He concludes that since man is mid- 
way between angels and beasts, his love will 
share in the peculiarities of both the celestial 
and the sensual passion. 2 Walter Charleton 
ridicules the subject and unmasks its immoral- 
ity, although his purpose is not in any way to 

1 " An Account of Plato's Ideas, and of Platonic Love." 
"Miscellanies," pp. 355-364. 

2 "An Essay on Love," p. 275. 



158 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

purify the morals of his readers. 1 Robert Boyle 
wrote, but did not publish, a series of letters, 
" wherein [among other subjects] Platonic love 
was explicated, celebrated, and wherein the cure 
of love was proposed and prosecuted." 2 

The ideas expressed in these poems on Pla- 
tonic love are not essentially different from 
those in the lyrics which have been already 
discussed. At times, as in Stanley's "Love's 
Innocence," the Platonic manner is understood 
as one devoid of all danger. It was in this 
way that Vaughan looked upon his love for 
Amoret. " You have here," he says, " a 
flame, bright only in its own innocence, that 
kindles nothing but a generous thought, which 
though it may warm the blood, the fire at 
highest is but Platonic ; and the commotion, 
within these limits, excludes danger." 3 On the 
other hand, Carew's " Song to a Lady, not yet 
Enjoyed by her Husband," shows how the stock 
ideas was used to cloak the immorality of the 
poet's thought. George Daniel has left a series 

1 "The Ephesian and Cimmerian Matrons," 1668. 

2 " A Treatise of Seraphic Love." Advertisements to the 
Reader, p. 12. 

3 "Poems, with the Tenth Satire of Juvenal Englished, 
1646." Preface. 



THEORY OF LOVE 159 

of poems revealing the several phases of this love 
ranging between the two extremes. He writes 
one " To Cinthia, coying it," in which its inno- 
cence is preached. " To Cinthia Converted " 
describes the union of the two souls. " To 
the Platonicke Pretender" warns the ladies 
from listening to this love when taught by 
a libertine. " Pure Platonicke " explains the 
spiritual nature of the passion by contrast with 
sensual love. " Court-Platonicke " shows how 
at court it was used merely as a means to an 
improper end. " Anti-Platonicke " recites the 
feelings of the sensual lover. 1 In Lord Herbert 
are found two other phases of this love. The 
first and second of his poems named " Platonick 
Love" are complimentary poems addressed to a 
lady ; the first, telling her how the love inspired 
by her refines his soul, and the second celebrat- 
ing Platonic love in general application. 

" For as you can unto that height refine 
All Loves delights, as while they do incline 
Unto no vice, they so become divine, 
We may as well attain your excellence, 
As, without help of any outward sense 
Would make us grow a pure Intelligence." 

(Stz. 2.) 
1 Works, ed. Grosart, I. 112-123. 



160 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

In the third " Platonicke Love " the lover is 
represented as wavering between despair and 
hope with a slight balance in favor of the latter. 
He is disconsolate because he finds no hope 

" when my matchless Mistress were inclin'd 
To pity me, 'twould scarcely make me glad, 
The discomposing of so fair a mind 
Being that which would to my Affections add." 

(Stz. 1.) 

He finds hope, however, in the thought that 

a though due merit I cannot express, 
Yet she shall know none ever lov'd for less 
Or easier reward. Let her remain 
Still great and good, and from her Happiness 
My chief contentment I will entertain." 

(Stz. 7.) 
He ends with hope still living: 

" Then, hope, sustain thy self : though thou art hid 
Thou livest still, and must till she forbid ; 
For when she would my vows and love reject, 
They would a Being in themselves project, 
Since infinites as they yet never did, 
Nor could conclude without some good effect." 

(Stz. 16.) 

Platonic love, as such an example proves, was 
but synonymous with hopeless love. 

Platonic love, then, meant either a love de- 
void of all sensual desire, an innocent or hope- 



THEORY OF LOVE 161 

less passion, or it was a form of gallantry used 
to cloak immorality. Its one characteristic 
notion was that true love consisted in a union 
of soul with soul, mind with mind, or essence 
with essence. This idea of restricting love to 
the experience of soul as opposed to the enjoy- 
ment of sense is the one notion which runs be- 
neath many of the love lyrics written in the 
seventeenth century ; and it is the point at- 
tacked by opponents. In John Cleveland, " To 
Cloris, a Rapture," and in Campion's " Song " 1 
the poets exhort their beloved to enjoy this 
high union of soul. In Carew's " To My Mis- 
tress in Absence," in Lovelace's " To Lucasta. 
Going beyond the Seas," and in Cowley's 
" Friendship in Absence," the triumph of love 
over time and space is explained by the min- 
gling of souls in true love. In Sedley's "The 
Platonick " and in Ayres's " Platonic Love " 
are found examples of the hopelessness of the 
passion. In Aytoun's " Platonic Love " which 
was taken by Suckling to form a poem — the 
"Song," beginning, "If you refuse me once" — 
the lover modestly confesses that he cannot 
rise to the heights of such a pure passion, and 
1 Works, ed. A. H. Bullen, p. 124. 

M 



162 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

requests a more easy way. In Cleveland's 
" The Anti-Platonick " and " Platonick Love," 
in Brome's " Epithalamy," in Cowley's "Pla- 
tonick Love" and "Answer to the Platonicks," 
and in Cartwright's " No Platonique Love," the 
claims of the opponents are expressed in all the 
grossness of Restoration immorality. 

The atmosphere in which the metaphysical 
treatment of love flourished was intensely in- 
tellectual. The poets in whom the strain is 
clearest were trying to accomplish two things : 
they wished to oppose the idea of passion in 
love, and they endeavored to account for the 
attraction of sex in the love which they them- 
selves experienced. However much these poets 
wished to exclude the notion of sex, their minds 
were constantly busied in trying to solve the 
source of its power. In Donne, the greatest 
representative of the metaphysical manner, this 
purpose is very evident. He wrote his long- 
est poem, "An Anatomy of the World," to 
show how, by reason of the death of a certain 
young woman, "the frailty and the decay of 
this whole world is represented." In reply to 
Jonson's criticism, that this poem was " full of 
blasphemies," Donne remarked that "he de- 



THEORY OF LOVE 163 

scribed the Idea of a Woman, and not as she 
was." 1 Here lies the secret of Donne's treat- 
ment of woman ; he was interested in her, 
not as a personality, but as an idea. In solv- 
ing the nature of this idea he recurred to certain 
Platonic conceptions by which he thought to 
explain the source of her power. 

These Platonic conceptions are two. Woman 
is identified with virtue ; she is the source of 
all virtue in the world, others being virtuous 
only by participating in her virtue. Thus in a 
letter u To the Countess of Huntingdon" he 
shows how virtue has been raised from her 
fallen state on earth by appearing in woman. 
She was once scattered among men, but now 
summed up in one woman. 

" If the world's age and death be argued well 

By the sun's fall, which now towards earth doth bend, 
Then we might fear that virtue, since she fell 
So low as woman, should be near her end. 

" But she's not stoop'd, but raised ; exiled by men 

She fled to heaven, that's heavenly things, that's 
you; 
She was in all men thinly scatter'd then, 
But now a mass contracted in a few. 

lu Ben Jonson's Conversations with William Drum- 
mond," p. 3. Shakespeare's Soc. Pub. v. 8. 



164 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" She gilded us, but you are gold ; and she 
Informed us, but transubstantiates you. 
Soft dispositions, which ductile be, 

Elixirlike, she makes not clean, but new. 

" Though you a wife's and mother's name retain, 
'Tis not as woman, for all are not so ; 
But virtue, having made you virtue, is fain 

To adhere in these names, her and you to show. 

" Else, being alike pure, we should neither see ; 
As, water being into air rarefied, 
Neither appear, till in one cloud they be, 
So, for our sakes, you do low names abide." 

Beneath this torture of conceits may be seen 
the idea that woman is that very virtue of 
which Plato has spoken in his " Phsedrus." 
Sidney has used the idea to compliment Stella ; 
but Donne's purpose is to show how woman, as 
woman, is to be identified with it, and that the 
differentiation in the concept resulting from 
the fact that she may be a wife or a mother is 
due to the necessity that this virtue become 
visible on earth. 

The second Platonic conception through 
which Donne conveys his idea of woman's 
nature is the universal soul. In his lyric, " A 
Fever," he says, speaking of the object of his 
love: 



THEORY OF LOVE 165 

" But yet thou canst not die, I know ; 
To leave this world behind, is death ; 
But when thou from this world wilt go, 
The whole world vapours with thy breath. 

" Or if, when thou, the world's soul, go'st 
It stay, 'tis but thy carcase then." 

And in " An Anatomy of the World " this idea 
of the death of the world in the death of a 
woman is explained at length. 

Holding thus to this idea of woman, and striv- 
ing to differentiate love from passion, Donne 
was able to confine his notion of love to the 
soul ; and through the metaphysical manner of 
his poetic art he was able to express this notion 
in the most perplexing intricacies of thought. 
j As Dryden has said, " he affects the metaphys- 
ics, not only in his satires, but in his amorous 
verses, where nature only should reign : and 
perplexes the minds of the fair sex with the 
speculations of philosophy, where he should 
engage their hearts, and entertain them with 
the softness of love." x ; By imitating his style 
the other lyric poets of the seventeenth century 
produced the species of love poems which have 

1 Works, ed. Saintsbury, xi. 124, note. 



166 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

already been analyzed. His skill and his sin- 
cerity of aim are lacking in their verse ; and 
the result was either a weak dilution of his 
thought or a striving for his manner in prais- 
ing a lower conception of love. 



CHAPTER III 

God and the Soul 

i. nature of god 

Platonism affected Christian theology as it 
appears in English poetry in a twofold way. 
It provided a body of intellectual principles 
which were identified with the persons of the 
Christian Trinity and it also trained the minds 
of the poets in conceiving God rather as the 
object of the mind's speculative quest than as 
the dread judge of the sinful soul. Platonism 
in this form is no longer the body of ethical 
principles appearing in the Platonic dialogues; 
but is that metaphysical after-growth of Pla- 
tonism that has its source in the philosophy of 
Plotinus. According to this form of specula- 
tive mysticism there were three ultimate princi- 
ples, or hypostases, — The Good, Intellect (vov^, 
and Soul. Owing to the affinity of Platonism 
for Christian forms of thought, these three 
167 



168 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

hypostases were conceived as the philosophic 
basis underlying the Christian teaching of the 
three Persons of the Trinity. Such an inter- 
pretation is seen plainly in the work of Henry 
More and William Drummond ; and the specu- 
lative attitude of conceiving God and Christ in 
the light of the hypostases of Plotinus is also 
discernible in Spenser and Milton. 

The boldest attempt to identify the three 
Plotinian principles with the Christian Trinity 
is made in Henry More's " Psychozoia," the 
first poem of his " Psychodia Platonica." This 
poetical treatise reveals the aim of More's 
spiritual life as it was formulated on the basis 
of Platonic philosophy blended with the teach- 
ing of the " Theologia Germanica." The 
strain of self-abnegation which More learned in 
"that Golden little Book" 1 as he names the 
German treatise, may be easily separated from 
the Platonism, being confined to the last two 
books of his poem ; it may thus be dismissed. 
In the first book, however, the current of 
thought is almost purely Platonic. There, 
under the figure of the marriage rite, the first 
principle of Plotinus, the Good, is represented 

1 " Life of Henry More," Richard Ward, p. 12. 



GOD AND THE SOUL 169 

as joining his two children — Intellect and 
Soul — in holy union ; and under the poetic 
device of a veil with several films or tissues, 
More describes Soul in minute detail. 

In keeping with the teachings of Platonism 
More defines each person of the Trinity in the 
terms used by Plotinus. According to this 
philosopher the highest reality is The One or 
The Good which is infinite and above all com- 
prehension, not because it is impossible to 
measure or count it (since it has no magnitude 
and no multitude), but simply because it is im- 
possible to conceive its power. (" Enneads," VI. 
ix. 6.) In the beatific vision, in which The Good 
is known in the Soul, it is invisible, hidden in its 
own rays of light. (" Enneads," VI. vii. 35.) 
More thus speaks of God, naming him Hattove : 

" Th' Ancient of dayes, sire of jEternitie, 
Sprung of himself, or rather nowise sprong. 
Father of lights, and everlasting glee 
Who puts to silence every daring tongue 
And flies mans sight, shrouding himself among 
His glorious rayes, good Hattove, from whom came 
All good that Penia [i.e. want] spies in thickest throng 
Of most desired things, all's from that same." 

(I. 5.) 

" But first of all 
*Was mighty Hattove, deeply covered o're 



170 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

With unseen light. No might Imaginall 
May reach that vast profunditie." 

(I. 16.) 

The Son is identified with the second hypos- 
tasis, — universal intellect. In this all realities 
are present not as created things in time or 
space, but embraced as essential forms with no 
spatial or temporal relation. This character of 
universal intellect is thus named alcbv, or eter- 
nity. ("Enneads," III. vii. 4.) More thus 
writes of Christ — 

" The youthfull Mon, whose fair face doth shine 
While he his Fathers glory doth espy, 
Which waters his fine flowring forms with light from 
high. 

" Not that his forms increase, or that they die. 
For JEon Land, which men Idea call, 
Is nought but life in full serenitie, 
Vigour of life is root, stock, branch, and all ; 
Nought here increaseth, nought here hath its fall ; 
For JEons kingdomes alwaies perfect stand, 
Birds, beasts, fields, springs, plants, men and minerall, 
To perfectnesse nought added be there can." 

(I. 13. 14.) 

Psyche, or Uranore, as she is named at times, 
is the third person of the Trinity. She is the 
soul of the universe, present in every "atom 
ball," in the creatures of earth, sea, air, the 



GOD AND THE SOUL 171 

divine stars in heaven. (" Enneads," V. i. 2.) 
In her true essence she is invisible ; but More 
pictures her as enveloped in a fourfold gar- 
ment. The outer garment is called Physis, 
in which all natural objects appear as spots 
which grow each according to its idea. This 
robe is stirred with every impulse of life from 
the central power of God. 

" The first of these fair films, we Physis name. 
Nothing in nature did you ever spy 
But there's pourtraid : 

***** 
" And all besprinkeled with centrall spots, 
Dark little spots, is this hid inward veil. 
***** 
" When they dispread themselves, then gins to swell 
Dame Psyches outward vest, as th' inward wind 
Softly gives forth, full softly doth it well 
Forth from the centrall spot ; 

***** 
according to the imprest Art 
(That Arts impression's from Idea Land) 
So drives it forth before it every part 
According to true symmetry. " (I. 41-44.) 

The second and third folds of Psyche's vest 
are very closely identified. They are called 
Arachnea and Haphe, by which the life of 



I ,-. 



172 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

sensation is meant. Haphe, or touch, sits in 
the finely spun web of Arachnea, and is aware 
of every manifestation of life resulting from 
the soul's contact with the outward world. 
In this life of sensation Psyche sees as in a 
mirror all the stirring life within the universe. 
(I. 48, 49, 50.) 

The fourth fold of Psyche's garment is 
called Semele, by which imagination is meant. 
This is the loosest of the four veils, having the 
fullest play in its movements. It is universal 
imagination, and from it arises the inspiration 
of the poet and the prophet. (I. 57.) The 
individual powers of imagination are conceived 
as daughters of the one great Semele. 

" She is the mother of each Semele : 
The daughters be divided one from one ; 
But she grasps all. How can she then but see 
Each Semels shadows by this union? 
She sees and swayes imagination 
As she thinks good ; and it that she think good 
She lets it play by 't self, yet looketh on, 
While she keeps in that large strong-beating flood 
That gars the Poet write, and rave as he were wood." 

(I. 59.) 

These three persons — Ahad, another name 
given by More to God (I. 34), iEon, and Psyche 



GOD AND THE SOUL 173 

— form, says More, " the famous Platonicall 
Triad ; which though they that slight the 
Christian Trinity do take for a figment ; yet I 
think it is do contemptible argument, that the 
Platonists, the best and divinest of Philoso- 
phers, and the Christians, the best of all that 
do professe religion, do both concur that there 
is a Trinity. In what they differ, I leave to be 
found out, according to the safe direction of 
that infallible Rule of Faith, the holy Word." 1 
To signify the union of these persons More 
represents Ahad joining ^Eon, his son, in mar- 
riage to Psyche, and by holding their hands in 
his, maintaining a perpetual unity. 

" My first born Sonne, and thou my daughter dear, 
Look on your aged Sire, the deep abysse, 
In which and out of which you first appear; 
I Ahad hight, and Ahad onenesse is : 
Therefore be one ; (his words do never misse) 
They one became. 

" They straight accord : then he put on the ring, 
The ring of lasting gold on Uranure ; 
Then gan the youthful Lads aloud to sing, 
Hymen ! O Hymen ! O the Virgin pure ! 
O holy Bride ! long may this joy indure. 

(I. 34, 35.) 

1 " Psychozoia." To the Reader. 



174 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

And all this time he held their hands in one ; 
Then they with chearfull look one thing desired, 
That he nould break this happy union. 
I happy union break ? quoth he anon : 
I A had ? Father of Community ? 
Then they : That you nould let your hand be gone 
Off from our hands. He grants with smiling glee." 

(I. 38.) 

In this way More has expressed his concep- 
tion of the Christian Trinity. Inasmuch as his 
purpose in the " Psychozoia " is to relate the 
experiences of the human soul from the time 
of its departure from God to its return thither, 
he has laid especial emphasis upon the third 
hypostasis of Plotinus, — Soul. 

In William Drummond's " An Hymn of the 
Fairest Fair " attention is centred upon the 
first person of the Trinity. Drummond is 
more of a poet and less of a philosopher than 
More; but the philosophic conceptions which 
are woven into his poetical description of the 
nature, attributes, and works of God are drawn 
from the same system of metaphysics. In 
Drummond's "Hymn" there is a mingling of 
two conceptions of God. He is described, ac- 
cording to the Hebraic idea, as a mighty king, 
the creator of the universe, dwelling in heaven, 



GOD AND THE SOUL 175 

and possessing such attributes of personality 
as justice, mercy, might. Running in and out 
of this description is a strain of Platonic specu- 
lation, in which the conception of God as an 
essence is very prominent. Thus by means 
^ of a poetic device picturing youth standing be- 
fore God and pouring immortal nectar into His 
cup, Drummond expresses the Platonic idea of 
absolute oneness. And this idea is the attri- 
bute of God first set forth. 

"If so we may well say (and what we say, 
Here wrapt in flesh, led by dim reason's ray, 
To show by earthly beauties which we see, 
That spiritual excellence that shines in thee, 
Good Lord, forgive), not far from thy right side, 
With curled locks Youth ever doth abide ; 
Rose-cheeked Youth, who, garlanded with flowers 
Still blooming, ceaselessly unto thee pours 
Immortal nectar in a cup of gold, 
That by no darts of ages thou grow old, 
And, as ends and beginnings thee not claim, 
Successionless that thou be still the same." 

(11. 31-42.) 

After a description of God's might, Drum- 
mond passes on to consider His truth, con- 
ceived as the Platonists conceived intellect, 
embracing all reality as essential form. This 



176 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

attribute is pictured as a mirror in which God 
beholds all things. 

" With locks in waves of gold that ebb and flow 
On ivory neck, in robes more white than snow, 
Truth steadfastly before thee holds a glass, 
Indent with gems, where shineth all that was, 
That is, or shall be. Here, ere aught was wrought, 
Thou knew all that thy pow'r with time forth brought, 
And more, things numberless which thou couldst make, 
That actually shall never being take : 
Here, thou behold'st thyself, and, strange, dost prove 
At once the beauty, lover, and the love." 

(11. 56-66.) 

Platonic metaphysics are also present in 
Drummond's account of the essential unity 
persisting throughout the triplicity of Per- 
sons. Plotinus had held that The One caused 
the mind or intellect, and that in turn caused 
universal soul. The order, however, is not 
one of time sequence, but merely a logical order 
of causation. In this series of causation there 
is no idea of a production as an act going out 
of itself and forming another ; each producing 
cause remains in its own centre; throughout the 
series runs one cause or manifestation of life. 
His favorite figures by which he explains this 
idea are, first, that of an overflowing spring 
which gives rise to a second and this to a third; 



GOD AND THE SOUL 177 

and, second, that of a sun with a central source 
of light with its spreading rays. (" Enneads," 
V. ii. 1, 2.) Thus intellect is an irradiation of 
The One and soul is an irradiation of intellect. 
(" Enneads," V. i. 6.) Druramond, holding to 
the idea of the self-sufficiency of God as ex- 
pressed in Plotinus, a state in which God is 
alone by Himself and not in want of the things 
that proceed from Him (" Enneads," VI. vii. 
40), is thus able to unfold the mystery of the 
One in Three : 

" Ineffable, all-powrfull God, all free, 
Thou only liv'st, and each thing lives by thee ; 
No joy, no, nor perfection to thee came 
By the contriving of this world's great frame ; 

* * ■*■ * * 

world nought to thee supplied, 
All in thyself thyself thou satisfied. 
Of good no slender shadow doth appear, 
No age-worn track, in thee which shin'd not clear ; 
Perfections sum, prime cause of every cause, 
Midst, end, beginning, where all good doth pause. 
Hence of thy substance, differing in nought, 
Thou in eternity, thy Son forth brought, 
The only birth of thy unchanging mind, 
Thine image, pattern-like that ever shin'd, 
Light out of light, begotton not by will, 
But nature, all and that same essence still 
Which thou thyself. . . . 

N 



178 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

Of this light, 
Eternal, double, kindled was thy spright 
Eternally, who is with thee the same, 
All-holy gift, ambassador, knot, flame. 
Most sacred Triad ! O most holy One ! 
Unprocreate Father, ever procreate Son, 
Ghost breath'd from both, you were, are, aye shall be, 
Most blessed, three in one, and one in three, 
Incomprehensible by reachless height, 
And unperceived by excessive light. 

%fc $fc $fc $F ^F" 

So, though unlike, the planet of the days, 

So soon as he was made, begat his rays, 

Which are his offspring, and from both was hurl'd 

The rosy light which comfort doth the world, 

And none forewent another ; so the spring 

The well-head, and the stream which they forth bring, 

Are but one selfsame essence, nor in aught 

Do differ, save in order, and our thought 

No chime of time discerns in them to fall, 

But three distinctly bide one essence all." 

(11. 99-142.) 

From this point on to the close, the " Hymn " 
celebrates the glory of God in his works. 
Drummond possessed an imagination that de- 
lighted as Milton's did in the contemplation of 
the universe as a vast mechanical scheme of sun 
and planets. (11. 180-232.) His philosophic 
mind, however, led him to conceive of nature 
in the manner of the Platonists. God, or true 



GOD AND THE SOUL 179 

being, according to Plotinus is a unity, every- 
where present (" Enneads," VI. v. 4) ; and 
matter, the other extreme of his philosophy, is 
an empty show, a shadow in a mirror. (" En- 
neads," III. vi. 7.) In closing the account of 
the works of God, Drummond thus writes : 

" Whole and entire, all in thyself thou art, 
Ail-where diffus'd, yet of this All no part ; 
For infinite, in making this fair frame, 
Great without quantity, in all thou came, 
And filling all, how can thy state admit 
Or place or substance to be said of it ? 

***** 
Were but one hour this world disjoin'd from thee, 
It in one hour to nought reduc'd should be, 
For it thy shadow is ; and can they last, 
If sever'd from the substances them cast ? " 

(11. 285-298.) 

Drummond's " Hymn " is the work of a mind 
in which poetical sensuousness and philosophic 
abstraction are well-nigh equally balanced. In 
More the philosopher had outweighed the poet. 
In Milton the poet asserts his full power. To 
him the Plotinian scheme of the hypostases is 
valuable only as they enable his love of beauty 
to be satisfied in conformity with his intellect- 
ual apprehension of the relation between God 
and the Son in the Trinal Godhead. Plotinus 



180 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

had outlined the relation between The Good and 
Intellect as that of a principle of beauty by 
which the intellect is invested and possesses 
beauty and light. (* ; Enneads," VI. vii. 31.) The 
Good itself is the principle of beauty, hidden 
in its own rays of light. In Milton the con- 
ception of God as hidden in inaccessible light, 
and of the Son as the express image of the 
invisible beauty of God, is explained in con- 
formity with the Platonic scheme, and also with 
those Scriptural texts, one of which mentions 
God as a King of kings, who only hath im- 
mortality, dwelling in the light which no man 
can approach unto (1 Tim. vi. 16) ; and the 
other proclaims that in Christ " dwelleth all the 
fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. ii. 9). 
Thus in heaven the angels hymn their praises : 

" Thee, Father, first they sung, Omnipotent, 
Immutable, Immortal, Infinite, 
Eternal King ; thee, Author of all being, 
Fountain of light, thyself invisible 
Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sitt'st 
Throned inaccessible, but when thou shad'st 
The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud 
Drawn round about thee like a radiant shrine 
Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear, 
Yet dazzle Heaven, that brightest Seraphim 
Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes. 



GOD AND THE SOUL 181 

Thee next they sang, of all creation first, 
Begotten Son, Divine Similitude, 
In whose conspicuous countenance, without cloud 
Made visible, the Almighty Father shines, 
Whom else no creature can behold : on thee 
Impressed the effulgence of his glory abides. 
Transfused on thee his ample Spirit rests." 

(P. L., III. 372-389.) 

And the Almighty addresses the Son : 

" ' Effulgence of my glory, Son beloved, 
Son in whose face invisible is beheld 
Visibly, what by Deity I am.' " 

(VI. 680-682.) 

This relation of Christ to God which in the 
Scripture was indicated only as in an outline 
sketch has been filled in with the substance of 
the Plotinian sesthetics, in which The One and 
The Good is beauty itself (KaWovrf) and intel- 
lect is the beautiful (to tcaXov). (" Enneads," 
I. vi. 6.) 

The attraction which this philosophical ex- 
planation had for those whose work reveals its 
presence is twofold. To the religious mind in 
which the metaphysical cast of thought was 
prominent, the idea of the transcendent imma- 
nence of God in all things as their life, yet apart 
from all things as objects in time and space 



182 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

came home with its wealth of suggestion of the 
nearness of God to man. In Henry More this 
feeling is uppermost in his " Psychozoia." In 
the midst of his description of Psyche's robe 
he breaks out into a passage on the constant 
care which God shows toward the world. In 
Psyche's mirror of Arachnea and Haphe God 
is aware of all on earth that falls under sense. 
The roaring of the hungry lion, the burning 
thirst of the weary traveller and every move- 
ment of the little sparrow are all known to him. 

" Do not I see? I slumber not nor sleep, 
Do not I heare? each noise by shady night 
My miroir represents : when mortals steep 
Their languid limbs in Morpheus dull delight, 
I hear such sounds as Adams brood would fright. 
The dolefull echoes from the hollow hill 
Mock houling wolves : the woods with black bedight. 
Answer rough Pan, his pipe and eke his skill, 
And all the Satyr-routs rude whoops and shoutings 
shrill." (I. 54.) 

In his second canto, where he repeats the idea 
of the universal life of Psyche, he dwells on the 
fact of God's immanence in the world. He is 
the inmost centre of creation, from whom as 
rays from the sun the individual souls are 
born. 



GOD AND THE SOUL 183 

" Dependence of this All hence doth appear 
And severall degrees subordinate. 
But phansie's so unfit such things to clear, 
That oft it makes them seem more intricate ; 
And now Gods work it doth disterminate 
Too far from his own reach : But he withall 
More inward is, and far more intimate 
Then things are with themselves. His ideall 
And centrall presence is in every atom-ball." 

(II. 10.) 

In those minds less metaphysical in nature, 
the high speculations of Platonic philosophy 
opened a way by which they could conceive 
God as a principle grasped by the mind rather 
than as a personal judge and punisher of sin. 
In Drummond this contrast in the two con- 
ceptions of God — one feeding itself on phi- 
losophy, and the other on the imagery of the 
Scripture — is strikingly brought out by a com- 
parison of the opening and the ending of " An 
Hymn of the Fairest Fair " with those of " A 
Prayer for Mankind." The "Hymn" begins 
with a confession of the elevating power of his 
subject : 

" I feel my bosom glow with wontless fires 
Rais'd from the vulgar press my mind aspires, 
Wing'd with high thoughts, unto his praise to climb, 
From deep eternity who called forth time ; 



184 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

That essence which not mov'd makes each thing move, 

Uncreate beauty, all creating love : 

But by so great an object, radiant light, 

My heart appall'd, enfeebled rests my sight, 

Thick clouds benight my labouring engine, 

And at my high attempts my wits repine. 

If thou in me this sacred rapture wrought, 

My knowledge sharpen, sarcels [i.e. pinions] lend my 

thought ; 
Grant me, time's Father, world-containing King 
A pow'r, of thee in pow'rful lays to sing, 
That as thy beauty in earth lives, heaven shines, 
So it may dawn or shadow in my lines." 

(11. 1-16.) 
At the close he prays : 

" What wit cannot conceive, words say of thee, 
Here, where, as in a mirror, we but see 
Shadows of shadows, atoms of thy might, 
Still owly-eyed when staring on thy light, 
Grant that, released from this earthly jail, 
And freed of clouds which here our knowledge veil, 
In heaven's high temples, where thy praises ring, 
I may in sweeter notes hear angels sing." 

(11. 329-335.) 

" A Prayer for Mankind," however, opens with 
the note of humble adoration and a sense of sin. 

" Great God, whom we with humble thoughts adore, 
Eternal, infinite, almighty King, 

***** 
At whose command clouds dreadful thunders sound ! 
Ah ! spare us worms ; weigh not how we, alas 



GOD AND THE SOUL 185 

Evil to ourselves, against thy laws rebel ; 
Wash off those spots which still in mind's clear glass, 
Though we be loath to look, we see too well ; 
Deserv'd revenge O do not, do not take ! " 

(11. 1-13.) 
It closes similarly: 

" Grant, when at last our souls these bodies leave, 
Their loathsome shops of sin, and mansions blind, 
And doom before thy royal seat receive, 
They may a Saviour, not a judge thee find." 

(11. 65-68.) 

In Spenser's " Hymne of Heavenly Beautie " 
in the first portion of which he sings the ascent 
of the mind through ever rising stages of per- 
fection to 

"that Highest farre beyond all telling," 

the mingling of these two ways of approach to 
God is very apparent. Spenser is first a Pla- 
tonist and then a Christian. How, he asks, if 
God's glory is such that the sun is dimmed by 
comparison, can we behold Him? 

" The meanes therefore which unto us is lent, 
Him to behold, is on his workes to looke, 
Which he hath made in beauty excellent, 
And in the same, as in a brasen booke, 
To reade enregistred in every nooke 
His goodnesse, which his beautie doth declare, 
For all thats good, is beautifull and faire. 



186 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" Thence gathering plumes of perfect speculation, 
To impe the wings of thy high flying mynd, 
Mount up aloft through heavenly contemplation, 
From this darke world, whose damps the soule do blynd, 
And like the native brood of Eagles kynd, 
On that bright Sunne of glorie fixe thine eyes, 
Clear'd from grosse mists of fraile infirmities." 

Then comes in the sense of sin, and he ap- 
proaches God in a different spirit. He con- 
tinues : 

" Humbled with feare and awful reverence, 
Before the footestoole of his Maiestie, 
Throw thy selfe downe with trembling innocence, 
Ne dare looke up with corruptible eye, 
On the dred face of that great Deity, 
For feare, lest if he chaunce to looke on thee, 
Thou turne to nought, and quite confounded be. 

" But lowly fall before his mercie seate, 
Close covered with the Lambes integrity, 
From the just wrath of his avengefull threate, 
That sits upon the righteous throne on hy." 

(11. 130-152.) 

II. NATURE OF THE SOUL 

The nature of the soul from the standpoint 
of Plotinian metaphysics was treated by Henry 
More in his two poetical treatises, " Pyscha- 
thanasia " and " Anti-psychopannychia." In the 
former he follows the course of the argument 



GOD AND THE SOUL 187 

set forth in the seventh book of the fourth 
" Ennead " of Plotinus. In the Plotinian defence 
two propositions are established ; namely, that 
the soul is not body, and that it is not a func- 
tion of body. By demonstrating these, it fol- 
lowed that the soul is an immaterial thing, 
a real being, and consequently eternal. This 
is the drift of More's argument in " Psychatha- 
nasia." The first and second books are devoted 
to the establishment of the definition of the soul 
as an incorporeal substance, and the proof of its 
incorporeality is deduced from considerations 
of its functions. 

The soul, More holds, is an incorporeal thing 
because it is a self-moving substance present 
in all forms of life. Plotinus had taught that 
soul was everywhere. " First, then," he says, 
" let every soul consider this : how by breath- 
ing life into them soul made all animals, the 
creatures of earth, sea, air, the divine stars in 
heaven ; made the sun, made the great firma- 
ment above us, and not only made but ordered 
it, so that it swings round in due course. Yet 
is this soul a different nature from what it 
orders, and moves, and vivifies. It must needs 
then be more precious than its creations. For 



188 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

they are born, and when the soul which min- 
isters their life abandons them, they die ; but the 
soul ever is because it never abandons itself." 
( u Enneads," V. i. 2.) More finds this soul pres- 
ent in the growth of all forms of vegetation, the 
sphere spermatic (I. ii. 30), in the life of ani- 
mals, sensation, and self-directed motion ; and 
in the intellectual life of man. (I. ii. 17-22.) 

" Thus have I trac'd the soul in all its works, 
And severall conditions have displaid, 
And show'd all places where so e'r she lurks, 
Even her own lurkings of her self bewray'd, 
In plants, in beasts, in men, while here she staid." 

(I. ii. 23.) 

He next demonstrates that this soul is a 

self-moving substance. It is self-moving in 

plants, as the quickening power of the sun 

on vegetation shows. Through the heat of 

the sun the hidden centre, or soul, is called 

into the life of blossoming and growth. 

" Thus called out by friendly sympathie 
Their souls move of themselves on their CentreitieP 

(I. ii. 31.) 

In animals the self-moving soul is manifested 

in motion and the life of sensation. 

" Then be the souls of beasts self-moving forms, 
Bearing their bodies as themselves think meet, 



GOD AND THE SOUL 189 

Invited or provok'd, so they transform 
At first themselves within, then straight in sight 
Those motions come, which suddenly do light 
Upon the bodies visible, which move 
According to the will of th' inward sprig ht." 

(I. ii. 36.) 

In man the self-motion of the soul is present 
in the activity of reason, whether as the pre- 
siding power in all of the operations of the 
image-making faculty, or as the contemplative 
and speculative power. (I. ii. 41-44.) 

After this account of the nature of the soul 
as a self-moving substance, More addresses 
himself to the task of showing that all life is 
immortal. In a time of despondency a Nymph 
once came and declared to him, 

" All life's immortall: though the outward trunk 
May changed be, yet life to nothing never shrunk." 

(I. iii. 17.) 

According to the theory unfolded by the 
Nymph there is an ever present unity in all 
things which is the true source of their life. 
This is God. From Him are six descending 
degrees of existence, called intellectual, psy- 
chical, imaginative, sensitive, plantal, or sper- 
matic. (I. iii. 23.) Below all of these is 
matter, which is nothing but mere potential- 



190 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

ity, or the possibility of all created things. 
(I. iv. 9.) Though these various degrees of 
life are distinct, they are manifestations of the 
one pervading unity. (I. iii. 25.) Matter thus 
cannot be the prop and stay of life. (I. iii. 26.) 
The second proof of the incorporeal nature 
of the soul is found in the character of its 
functions. After a hasty attack on the doc- 
trine of materialism in the form of a re- 
ductio ad absurdum (II. ii. 13-25 ; cf . Plotinus, 
IV. vii. 3), More shows, first, that the faculty 
within us by which we are aware of the out- 
ward world of sense is one and individual, yet 
everywhere present in the body. (II. ii. 32.) 
This faculty, called " the common sense " 
(II. ii. 26), sits as judge over all the data of 
sense knowledge (cf. Plotinus, IV. vii. 6) ; it 
decides in case of disagreement between two 
senses, and distinguishes clearly between the 
objects present to each sense. (II. ii. 28.) 
The common sense must be one, else, being 
divided, it would breed confusion in conscious- 
ness (II. ii. 31) ; and it must be everywhere 
present in the body because it shows no par- 
tiality to any sense, but has intelligence of all 
equally. (II. ii. 32.) 



GOD AND THE SOUL 191 

The rational powers of the soul are a further 
proof of the soul's incorporeal nature. The 
first consideration draws attention to the vast 
scope of man's will and soul. In the virtuous 
the soul can be so universalized and begotten 
into the life of God that the will embraces all 
with a tender love and is ever striving to seek 
God as the good. (II. iii. 6.) If this is so, 
More asks whether the soul thus universalized 
can ever die. (II. iii. 7.) Man's understand- 
ing, too, can become so broadened that it can 
apprehend God's true being, not knowing it, to 
be sure, in its true essence, but having such 
a true insight that it can reject all narrow con- 
ceptions of His nature and welcome other more 
comprehensive ideas as closer approximations 
to the truth. The understanding is in a state 
that More calls parturient ; God under certain 
conditions can be born within the soul. (II. iii. 
9-12.) For the reason, then, of the vastness of 
the power of will and understanding More holds 
that the soul cannot be a body. (II. iii. 4.) 

The next argument in regard to the rational 
powers of the soul centres about her power of 
pure abstraction. (Cf. "Enneads," IV. vii. 8.) 
In herself the soul divests matter of all time 



192 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

and place relations and views the naked, sim- 
ple essence of things. (II. iii. 18.) She thus 
frames within herself an idea, which is indivisi- 
ble and unextended ; and by this she judges out- 
ward objects. (II. iii. 18-20 ; cf. " Enneads," 
IV. vii. 12.) This property is not a property 
of body. (II. iii. 26.) 

At this point More closes the first division of 
his argument. By establishing the definition 
of the soul as a self-moving substance, and by 
an account of the nature of its functions, he has 
defended his first proposition, that the soul is 
an incorporeal thing. He then passes on to the 
second part of his argument, that the soul is an 
incorporeal thing because it is independent of 
the body. 

This portion of his defence falls into four 
main divisions. In the first he explains the 
nature of the body's dependence upon the soul. 
Through the power that the soul has by virtue 
of its lowest centre of life, called the plantal, 
the soul frames the body in order to exercise 
through it the functions of life. (III. i. 17.) 
The more perfect this body is the more awake 
the soul is. (III. i. 17.) But after the work of 
framing the body is finished, the soul dismisses 



GOD AND THE SOUL 193 

it as an old thought and begins its life of con- 
templation. (III. i. 16.) The main desire is 
to see God. (III. ii. 11.) Next More shows 
how the soul can direct her own thoughts 
within herself without in any way considering 
the body. Her intellectual part dives within 
her nature in its quest for self-knowledge and 
her will affects herself after this knowledge has 
been gained. All this is accomplished free 
from any bodily assistance. (III. ii. 25, 26.) 
The third division shows how the soul is so 
independent of the body that she can resist its 
desires. Often the sensual impulse of our 
nature would lead us to be content with mere 
satisfaction of our bodily desires ; but the soul 
desirous of truth and gifted with an insight 
into God's true nature enables us to resist all 
such impulses. (III. ii. 38, 39.) The fourth 
division contrasts the vitality of the soul with 
that of sense, fancy, and memory. These three 
faculties are weakened by age and by disease, 
and also by excessive stimulation ; but the soul 
never fades, but grows stronger with each con- 
templative act. (III. ii. 48, 49, 56.) 

The attraction which the philosophy of 
Plotinus had for More's mind lay in its scheme 



194 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

of speculative mysticism. The metaphysical sys- 
tem of Plotinus had taught that The One, which 
is the truly existing being, is everywhere present 
and yet nowhere wholly present. (" Enneads," 
VI. iv.) It had explained also that the only 
way in which the individual soul could appre- 
hend this truly existing being was by a mystical 
union with it, in which state the soul did not 
know in the sense of energizing intellectually, 
but was one with The One. (" Enneads," VI. 
ix. 10.) These two ideas lie at the basis of 
More's theosophic mysticism. Their presence 
can be felt throughout his " Psychathanasia " 
as its controlling idea and also in his two less 
important treatises, " Anti-psychopannychia " 
and " Anti-monopsychia." 

The argument of the "Anti-psychopanny- 
chia" and of the "Anti-monopsychia" centres 
about the doctrine of the mystic union with 
God. The argument in the " Psychathanasia " 
is a critique of materialism rather than a posi- 
tive plea for the existence of the soul after 
death. It was the purpose of More in his two 
pendants to his longer poem to treat of the 
state of the soul after death. That it is not 
enveloped in eternal night he proves in his 



GOD AND THE SOUL 195 

" Anti-psychopannychia." His argument is 
briefly this. Since God is a unity everywhere 
present, he is infinite freedom. (II. 2.) Since 
the soul's activities of will and intellect are 
free from dependence upon the body, death 
will be but the ushering of the soul into the 
life of God's large liberty. 

" Wherefore the soul cut off from lowly sense 
By harmlesse fate, far greater libertie 
Must gain : for when it hath departed hence 
(As all things else) should it not backward hie 
From whence it came ? but such divinitie 
Is in our souls that nothing lesse than God 
Could send them forth (as Plato's schools descrie) 
Wherefore when they retreat a free abode 
They'll find, unlesse kept off by Nemesis just rod." 

(II. 14.) 

In this life of union the soul will realize the 
deep fecundity of her own nature ; for in her 
are innate ideas. To establish this theory of 
innate ideas into which Plato's theory of rem- 
iniscence has been transformed in Plotinus (cf . 
" Enneads," IV. iii. 25), More educes four con- 
siderations. They must exist because (1) like 
is known only by like (II. 31) ; (2) no object or 
number of objects can give the soul a universal 
concept. (II. 36) ; (3) the apprehension of 



196 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

incorporeal things cannot be made by sense, 
therefore the soul must have the measure of 
such within her own nature (II. 38, 39) ; and 
(4) the process of learning shows that it is edu- 
cation, or the drawing out of the mind what 
was in it potentially (II. 42). Inasmuch, then, 
as innate ideas exist within the mind, called 
out by experience in life, how much more will 
they be evoked in that high union with God ! 

" But sith our soul with God himself may meet, 
In acted by his life, I cannot see 
What scruple then remains that moven might 
Least doubt but that she wakes with open eye, 
When fate her from this body doth untie. 
Wherefore her choisest forms do then arise, 
Rowz'd up by union and large sympathy 
With Gods own spright : she plainly then descries 
Such plentitude of life, as she could nere devise." 

(III. 2.) 

But this union of the soul with The One may 
be thought to obliterate self-identity after death 
and teach only a universal absorption of all souls 
into The One. To combat this idea More con- 
tends in his " Anti-monopsychia " that by virtue 
of the " Deif ormity " of the soul, by which he 
means its ability to be joined with God, the 
soul in death is so 



GOD AND THE SOUL 197 

" quickned with near Union 
With God, that now wish'd for vitalitie 
Is so encreas'd, that infinitely sh' has fun 
Herself, her deep'st desire unspeakably hath wonne. 

" And deep desire is the deepest act, 
The most profound and centrall energie, 
The very selfnesse of the soul, which backt 
With piercing might, she breaks out, forth doth flie 
From dark contracting death, and doth descrie 
Herself unto herself ; so thus unfold 
That actual life she straightwayes saith, is I." 

(Stz. 35, 36.) 

In the " Psychathanasia " the Plotinian doc- 
trines of the immanent unity of The One and 
of the mystical union of the soul with it are 
not so much present as positive arguments in- 
corporated in the sequence of thought, but are 
felt as controlling ideas in the mind of the 
writer. The reason for this lies in the fact 
that in the argument of Plotinus (IV. vii) 
these two truths of his philosophy are not 
specifically elaborated. To More, however, as 
indeed to all students of Plotinian metaphysics, 
these are the significant ideas of his system. 
More thus brings them in at opportune times 
throughout his argument in "Psychathanasia." 

The conception of the ever present unity of 



198 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

The One in all tilings is the fundamental idea 
in the first division of his thought. The te- 
nacity with which he clings to this doctrine is 
remarkable. His argument had brought him 
to the point where he had shown that all life 
— of plants and animals, as well as of men — 
was immortal. What, then, is the state of the 
plantal and animal soul after death? (I. ii. 
49-53.) More does not answer directly, but 
replies that although men cannot know this, 
it is not permitted to reason it down. 

" But it's already clear that 'tis not right 
To reason down the firm subsistencie 
Of things from ignorance of their propertie." 

(I. ii. 59.) 

Consequently when he comes to consider man's 
immortality, he says that all the preceding 
argument — the general reflection on the " self- 
motion and centrall stabilitie " of the soul — 
may be dismissed as needless. 

" Onely that vitalitie, 
That doth extend this great Universall, 
And move th' inert Materialitie 
Of great and little worlds, that keep in memorie." 

(II. i. 7.) 



GOD AND THE SOUL 199 

It is because of the firm conviction with which 
he holds to the conception of the pervading 
unity of The One that he expands the idea at 
length in the third and fourth cantos of the 
first book. 

The second idea, that of the mystical union of 
the individual soul with The One, is an incen- 
tive to More's thought and feelings throughout 
the course of his entire argument. From the 
fact that the soul can dive as deep as matter, 
and rise to the height of a blissful union with 
God, he derives the necessary inspiration for 
his "mighty task." 

" This is the state of th' ever-moving soul, 
Whirling about upon its circling wheel ; 
Certes to sight it variously doth roll, 
And as men deem full dangerously doth reel, 
But oft when men fear most, itself doth feel 
In happiest plight conjoin'd with that great Sun 
Of lasting blisse, that doth himself reveal 
More fully then, by that close union, 
Though men, that misse her here, do think her quite 
undone." (I. ii. 8.) 

When in the course of his argument he arrives 
at a discussion of the rational power of the 
soul, he launches out into a treatment of the 
vast scope of man's will and mind which 



200 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" should bring forth that live Divinity 
Within ourselves, if once God would consent 
To shew his specious form and nature eminent : 

" For here it lies like colours in the night 
Unseen and unregarded, but the sunne 
Displayes the beauty and the gladsome plight 
Of the adorned earth, while he doth runne 
His upper stage. But this high prize is wonne 
By curbing sense and the self seeking life 
(True Christian mortification) 
Thus God will his own self in us revive, 
If we to mortifie our straightened selves do strive." 

(II. iii. 12, 13.) 

Again, when his argument brings him to the 
point at which the independence of soul from 
body is to be proved, he breaks out with an 
exclamation of the bliss of that union of soul 
with God, when 

" reason shines out bright, 
And holy love with mild serenity 
Doth hug her harmlesse self in this her purity ; " 

(III. ii. 28.) 

and passes on to a description of The One as 
seen in the vision 

" Unplac'd, unparted, one close Unity, 
Yet omnipresent ; all things, yet but one ; 
Not streak'd with gaudy multiplicity, 



GOD AND THE SOUL 201 

Pure light without discolouration, 

Stable without circumvolution, 

Eternal rest, joy without passing sound." 

(III. ii, 36.) 

Finally in the last canto of his third book he 
testifies to the vanity of that knowledge of 
the reasons for the soul's immortality, even as 
he had given them (III. ii, 11), and confesses 
that the only sure stay in the storm of life is a 
faith in " the first Good." 

" But yet, my Muse, still take an higher flight, 
Sing of Platonick Faith in the first Good, 
That Faith that doth our souls to God unite 
So strongly, tightly, that the rapid floud 
Of this swift flux of things, nor with foul mud 
Can stain, nor strike us off from th' unity, 
Wherein we steadfast stand, unshak'd, unmov'd, 
Engrafted by a deep vitality 
The prop and stay of things is Gods benignity." 

(TIL iv. 14.) 

As in his " Psychozoia " it was noted how the 
omnipresence of Psyche appealed to More's 
religious sense of the nearness of God to His 
children, so in his other treatises, especially his 
" Psychathanasia," the mystical union of the 
soul with The One is for More another name 
for the love of God as known in the soul of the 
Christian. The Christian religion had taught 



ii 



202 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

that God is love, a conception far removed 
from Platonism, whether of the dialogues or of 
the "Enneads" of Plotinus. But the tendency 
to find in Platonism a rational sanction for 
religious truth was so strong in the theology 
of the Cambridge school, to which More be- 
longed, that this conception of God as love — 
which, indeed, is held by the Christian not as 
an idea but as a fact of his inmost religious 
experience — was interpreted in the light of 
the speculative mysticism of Plotinus ; and 
thus the formless One, the ultra-metaphysical 
principle above all being, became the Christian 
God of love. 

III. ETERNITY OF THE SOUL AND OF MATTER 

In the work of Vaughan and Spenser two 
distinct phases of another form of Platonic 
idealism are presented: one in which the poet 
looks back upon eternity as a fact of the soul's 
past experience, and the other in which he 
directs a forward glance to the future when the 
soul shall find its eternal rest. 

In the expression of his sense of eternity, 
Vaughan recurs to the doctrine of the pre- 



GOD AND THE SOUL 203 

existence of the soul as it is expounded in Plato. 
In Vaughan this idea is felt as an influence 
either affording the substance of his thought or 
determining the nature of his imagery. The 
idea which Vaughan carries over into his 
own poetry is found in Plato's account in the 
" Phsedrus " of the preexistence of the soul in 
a world of pure ideas before its descent into the 
body. " There was a time," says Plato, " when 
with the rest of the happy band they [i.e. the 
human souls] saw beauty shining in bright- 
ness : we philosophers following in the train of 
Zeus, others in company with other gods ; and 
then we beheld the beatific vision and were 
initiated into a mystery which may be truly 
called most blessed, celebrated by us in our 
state of innocence, before we had any experi- 
ence of evils to come, when we were admitted 
to the sight of apparitions innocent and simple 
and calm and happy, which we held shining in 
pure light, pure ourselves and not yet enshrined 
in that living tomb which we carry about, now 
that we are imprisoned in the body, like an 
oyster in his shell." (" Phsedrus," 250.) 

This idea occurs in two forms in Vaughan. 
In " The Retreat " the reminiscence of a past 



204 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

is described as a fact of Vaughan's religious 

experience. He longs to travel back to the 

time when, in his purity, he was nearer to God 

than he is now in his sinful state. 

" Happy those early days, when I 
Shin'd in my angel-infancy ! 
Before I understood this place 
Appointed for my second race, 
Or taught my soul to fancy ought 
But a white, celestial thought ; 
When yet I had not walk'd above 
A mile or two from my first love, 
And looking back — at that short space — 
Could see a glimpse of His bright face ; 
When on some gilded cloud, or flow'r, 
My gazing soul would dwell an hour, 
And in those weaker glories spy 
Some shadows of eternity ; 
Before I taught my tongue to wound 
My conscience with a sinful sound, 
Or had the black art to dispence 
A sev'ral sin to ev'ry sense, 
But felt through all this fleshly dress 
Bright shoots of everlastingness. 
O how I long to travel back, 
And tread again that ancient track ! 
That I might once more reach that plain, 
W T here first I left my glorious train : 
From whence th' enlighten'd spirit sees 
That shady City of palm-trees. 
But ah 1 my soul with too much stay 
Is drunk, and staggers in the way 1 



GOD AND THE SOUL 205 

Some men a forward motion love, 
But I by backward steps would move ; 
And when this dust falls to the urn, 
In that state I came, return." 

The second form of this idea appears in 
Vaughan's poem called "Corruption." Man 
is represented as enjoying the happiness of 
innocence in the garden of Eden, where he 
was in close touch with the beauties of heaven. 
Here he had a glimpse of his heavenly birth ; 
but when, by reason of sin, he was forced to 
leave that place, he found earth and heaven no 
longer friendly. 

" Sure, it was so. Man in those early days 

Was not all stone and earth ; 
He shin'd a little, and by those weak rays 

Had some glimpse of his birth. 
He saw heaven o'er his head, and knew from whence 

He came, condemned, hither ; 
And, as first love draws strongest, so from hence 

His mind sure progress'd thither. 
Things here were strange unto him ; sweat and till ; 

All was a thorn or weed. 

This made him long for home, as loth to stay 

With murmurers and foes ; 
He sigh'd for Eden, and would often say 

1 Ah ! what bright days were those ! ' 
Nor was heav'n cold unto him : for each day 

The valley or the mountain 



206 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

Afforded visits, and still Paradise lay- 
In some green shade or fountain. 

Angels lay leiger here : each bush, and cell, 
Each oak, and highway knew them ; 

Walk but the fields, or sit down at some well, 
And he was sure to view them." 

In this poem, although there is no such paral- 
lelism with the account of a preexistent state 
as it is given in Plato, the fundamental idea 
is the same as that of " The Retreat." Vaughan 
describes man's life in Eden as one of closer in- 
timacy with his celestial home than his lot on 
earth affords him, just as he had described the 
experience of his own " angel-infancy " and its 
contrast to his earthly life. In both poems is 
present the conviction that the human soul once 
lived in a state of pure innocence ; and in both 
is heard the note of regret at the loss of this 
through sin. 

In Vaughan's poem, "The World," the in- 
fluence of Plato's account of the preexistent 
life of the soul is felt only in affording the 
character of the imagery which Vaughan has 
used to express his idea. In the " Phasdrus " 
Plato describes the progress of the soul in its 
sight of the eternal ideas in the heaven of 
heavens. Each soul, represented as a chari- 



GOD AND THE SOUL 207 

oteer guiding a pair of winged horses, is car- 
ried about by the revolution of the spheres, 
and during the progress it beholds the ideas. 
The souls of the gods have no difficulty in see- 
ing these realities ; " but of the other souls," 
says Plato, " that which follows God best and 
is likest to him lifts the head of the charioteer 
into the outer world, and is carried round in 
the revolution, troubled indeed by the steeds, 
and with difficulty beholding true being ; while 
another only rises and falls, and sees, and again 
fails to see by reason of the unruliness of the 
steeds. The rest of the souls are also longing 
after the upper world, and they all follow, but 
not being strong enough they are carried round 
below the surface, plunging, treading on one 
another, each striving to be first ; and there is 
confusion and perspiration and the extremity 
of effort ; and many of them are lamed, or have 
their wings broken, through the ill-driving of 
the charioteers." (" Phsedrus," 248.) 

In this account of the revolution of the soul 
about the eternal realities of true being, Vaughan 
found the suggestion for his poem, "The World." 
Instead of the revolution of the soul about true 
being, he describes the revolution of time about 



208 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

eternity. The figure of the charioteer is absent, 
too, but it is by the use of the " wing " that 
those who make the revolution about eternity 
mount up into the circle, just as in Plato. Time 
in the poem also is represented as being " driven 
about by the spheres." Such coincidences of 
imagery show that Vaughan found in Plato's 
fanciful account of the soul's preexistent life 
in heaven the medium through which he ex- 
pressed his view of the relation of the life of 
the present day world to that of eternity. At 
first he pictures the revolution of the world 
about the great ring of light which he calls 
eternity: 

" I saw Eternity the other night, 
Like a great ring of pure and endless light, 

All calm, as it was bright ; 
And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years, 

Driv'n by the spheres 
Like a vast shadow mov'd : in which the world 

And all her train were hurl'd." 

He then describes the lover busied in his trifles, 
— his lute, his fancies, and his delights. Next 
moves the statesman, pursued by the shouts of 
multitudes. The next to follow are the miser 
and the epicure. 



GOD AND THE SOUL 209 

The doting lover in his quaintest strain 

Did there complain ; 
Near him, his lute, his fancy, and his nights, 

Wit's sour delights ; 
With gloves, and knots, the silly snares of pleasure 

Yet his dear treasure, 
All scatter'd lay, while he his eyes did pour 

Upon a flow'r. 



The darksome statesman, hung with weights and woe, 
Like a thick midnight fog, mov'd there so slow, 

He did nor stay, nor go ; 
Condemning thoughts — like sad eclipses — scowl 

Upon his soul, 
And clouds of crying witnesses without 

Pursued him with one shout. 



" The fearful miser on a heap of rust 
Sate pining all his life there, did scarce trust 

His own hands with the dust, 
Yet would not place one piece above, but lives 

In fear of thieves. 
Thousands there were as frantic as himself, 

And hugg'd each one his pelf ; 
The downright epicure plac'd heav'n in sense, 

And scorn'd pretence ; 
While others, slipp'd into a wide excess, 

Said little less ; 
The weaker sort slight, trivial wares enslave, 

Who think them brave ; 
And poor, despised Truth sate counting by 

Their victory." 



210 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

At this point Vaughan ends his catalogue of 
human types and comments upon the unwill- 
ingness of the many to soar up into the ring 
by the aid of the wing. 

" Yet some, who all this while did weep and sing, 
And sing, and weep, soar'd up into the ring ; 

But most would use no wing. 
O fools — said I — thus to prefer dark night 

Before true light ! 
To live in grots and caves, and hate the day 

Because it shows the way ; 
The way, which from this dead and dark abode 

Leads up to God." 

Spenser finds his suggestion of the eternal in 
life, not in a consciousness of a past existence, 
but in a conception of the world of matter built 
up in accordance with the Platonic doctrine 
of stability of the substance amid the flux of 
changing forms. This conception of the world 
is explained by him in his description of the 
" Garden of Adonis " in the " Faerie Queene " 
and in his " Two Cantos of Mutabilitie." 

The conception of matter which Spenser 
teaches is the doctrine of Plotinus expressed in 
accordance with the account of flux and sta- 
bility of natural phenomena explained by Plato 



GOD AND THE SOUL 211 

in the "TimaBus." According to Plotinus 
matter is an indestructible " subject " of forms 
which endures through all the various changes 
which it is constantly undergoing, and this 
unchanging something is never destroyed. 
(" Enneads," II. iv. 6. ) In the " Timseus " Plato 
had outlined a theory of flux with which this 
doctrine of the indestructibility of matter could 
be easily harmonized. In his discussion of the 
world of natural phenomena he distinguishes 
three natures, as he calls them, and likens them 
to a father, a child, and a mother. " For the 
present," he says in the " Timseus " (50), " we 
have only to conceive of three natures : first, 
that which is in process of generation ; secondly, 
that in which the generation takes place ; and 
thirdly, that of which the thing generated is a 
resemblance. And we may liken the receiving 
principle to a mother, and the source or spring 
to a father, and the intermediate nature to 
a child." According to this piece of poetic 
imagery he describes the various manifestations 
of matter in the outward world. The elements 
are constantly changing in and out of one 
another and have in them nothing permanent. 
They cannot be called " this " or " that," but 



212 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

only "such." Only the receiving principle, 
the universal nature, " that must be always 
called the same ; for while receiving all things, 
she never departs at all from her own nature, 
and never in any way or at any time assumes 
a form like that of any of the things which 
enter into her ; she is the natural recipient of 
all impressions, and is stirred and informed by 
them, and appears different from time to time 
by reason of them." ("Timseus," 50.) 

The explanation of the myriad changes of 
matter of the outward world of sense after the 
manner of this account by Plato is found in j 
Spenser's description of the " Garden of Adonis." [ 
The term "garden of Adonis" is found in 
Plato's " Phsedrus " (276), where is meant an 
earthen vessel in which plants are nourished 
to quick growth only to decay as rapidly. On 
this term Spenser's imagination built its super- 
structure of fancy by which the garden of 
Adonis became symbolic of the world of natu- 
ral phenomena described after the manner of 
Plato in the " Timseus " and Plotinus in the 
" Enneads." The garden is described at first 
as a seminary of all living things, conceived first 
as flowers : 



GOD AND THE SOUL 213 

" In that same Gardin all the goodly flowres, 
Wherewith dame Nature doth her beautifie, 
And decks the girlonds of her paramoures, 
Are fetcht : there is the first seminarie 
Of all things, that are borne to live and die, 
According to their kindes. Long worke it were, 
Here to account the endlesse progenie 
Of all the weedes, that bud and blossome there ; 
But so much as doth need, must needs be counted here." 

(III. vi. 30.) 

Spenser's imagination now changes, and he 
conceives of the objects in this garden as naked 
babes, in accordance with the suggestion of the 
intermediate nature which Plato conceived as 
a child. Genius as the porter of the place is 
thus described : 

" He letteth in, he letteth out to wend, 
All that to come into the world desire ; 
A thousand thousand naked babes attend 
About him day and night, which doe require, 
That he with fleshly weedes would them attire : 
Such as him list, such as eternal fate 
Ordained hath, he clothes with sinfull mire, 
And sendeth forth to live in mortall state, 
Till they againe returne backe by the hinder gate." 

(III. vi. 32.) 

Again there is a change, and the objects is- 
suing from this garden are forms which borrow 
their substance from the matter of chaos. 



214 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" Infinite shapes of creatures there are bred, 
And uncouth formes, which none yet ever knew, 
And every sort is in a sundry bed 
Set by it selfe, and ranckt in comely rew 
Some fit for reasonable soules t' in dew, 
Some made for beasts, some made for birds to weare, 
And all the fruitfull spawne of fishes hew 
In endlesse rancks along enraunged were, 
That seem'd the Ocean could not containe them there." 

(III. vi. 35.) 

When these forms are sent forth from the 
garden they take for their substance the matter 
found in chaos which is ever eternal. 

" Daily they grow, and daily forth are sent 
Into the world, it to replenish more ; 
Yet is the stocke not lessened, nor spent, 
But still remaines in everlasting store, 
As it at first created was of yore. 
For in the wide wombe of the world there lyes, 
In hateful darkenesse and in deepe horrore, 
An huge eternall Chaos, which supplyes 
The substances of natures fruitfull progeny es. 

" All things from thence doe their first being fetch, 
And borrow matters whereof they are made, 
Which when as forme and feature it doth ketch, 
Becomes a bodie, and doth then invade 
The state of life, out of the griesly shade. 
That substance is eterne, and bideth so, 
Ne when the life decayes, and forme does fade, 



GOD AND THE SOUL 215 

Doth it consume, and into nothing go, 

But cnaunged is, and often altred to and fro." 

(III. vi. 36-37.) 

Spenser now stops the play of fancy and 
becomes the philosopher, explaining the doc- 
trine of matter as taught by Plotinus. The 
substance of things is eternal and abides in 
potency of further change. 

" The substance is not changed, nor altered, 
But th' only forme and outward fashion ; 
For every substance is conditioned 
To change her hew, and sundry formes to don, 
Meet for her temper and complexion : 
For formes are variable and decay, 
By course of kind, and by occasion ; 
And that faire flower of beautie fades away, 
As doth the lilly fresh before the sunny ray." 

(II. vi. 38.) 

Finally, Spenser closes his account of the 
garden with a mingling of fancy and philoso- 
phy. He adopts the suggestion of Plato that 
the source of the many changes in natural 
phenomena is a father, and blends the concep- 
tion with the myth of Venus and Adonis. In 
the garden Venus is represented as enjoying 
the pleasure of the presence of Adonis per- 
petually, for he is described as the father of 



216 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

the various forms who abides eternal in all 
change. 

" There wont faire Venus often to enjoy 
Her deare Adonis joyous company, 
And reape sweet pleasure of the wanton boy ; 
There yet, some say, in secret he does ly, 
Lapped in flowers and pretious spycery, 
By her hid from the world, and from the skill 
Of Stygian Gods, which doe her love envy ; 
But she her selfe, when ever that she will, 
Possesseth him, and of his sweetnesse takes her fill. 

" And sooth it seemes they say : for he may not 
For ever die, and ever buried bee 
In balefull night, where all things are forgot; 
All be he subject to mortalitie, 
Yet is eterne in mutabilitie, 
And by succession made perpetuall, 
Transformed oft, and chaunged diverslie : 
For him the Father of all formes they call ; 
Therefore needs mote he live, that living gives to all." 

(III. vi. 46, 47.) 

The attraction which this doctrine of the 
indestructibility of "matter had for Spenser lay- 
in the comforting assurance which it brought 
him of an eternity when things should be at 
rest. Throughout Spenser is heard a note of 
world weariness. 

" Nothing is sure, that growes on earthly ground." 



GOD AND THE SOUL 217 

These words placed in the mouth of Arthur 
(I. ix. 11) are essentially characteristic of 
Spenser's outlook on the things of this world : 
they are his lacrimce rerum. The " Cantos of 
Mutabilitie " is the best instance in point. 
These two cantos celebrate the overthrow of 
Mutability by Nature. To the claim of preemi- 
nence among the gods which Mutability lays 
before Nature, and which she bases upon the 
fact that everything in the wide universe is sub- 
ject to constant change, Dame Nature replies that 
though they be subject to change, they change 
only their outward state, each change working 
their perfection ; and she further remarks that 
the time will come when there shall be no more 
change. At the end of Mutability's plea Dame 
Nature thus answers the charge : 

" I well consider all that ye have sayd, 
And find that all things stedfastnes doe hate 
And changed be : yet being rightly wayd 
They are not changed from their first estate ; 
But by their change their being doe dilate : 
And turning to themselves at length againe, 
Doe worke their owne perfection so by fate : 
Then over them Change doth not rule and raigne ; 
But they raigne over change, and doe their states main- 
taine. 



218 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

" Cease therefore daughter further to aspire, 
And thee content thus to be rul'd by me : 
For thy decay thou seekst by thy desire ; 
But time shall come that all shall changed bee, 
And from thenceforth, none no more change shall see." 

(VII. vii. 58, 59.) 

On this decision of Nature Spenser bases his 
assurance of a time when the soul shall have 
its final rest. With a prayer to the great God 
of Sabaoth that he may see the time when all 
things shall rest in Him, Spenser closes his 
work on his great unfinished poem — the 
"Faerie Queene." 

" Then gin I thinke on that which Nature sayd, 

Of that same time when no more Change shall be, 

But stedfast rest of all things firmely stayd 

Upon the pillours of Eternity, 

That is contrayr to Mutabilitie : 

For, all that moveth, doth in Change delight : 

But thence-forth all shall rest eternally. 

With Him that is the God of Sabbaoth hight : 

O Thou great Sabbaoth God, graunt me that Sabaoths 

sight." 

( VII. viii. 2.) 

In the theory of the preexistence of the soul 
and in the conception of the indestructibility of 
matter Vaughan and Spenser were able to find 
teachings which were akin to the most intimate 



GOD AND THE SOUL 219 

experiences of their lives. Although the phase 
of Platonic idealism which taught in these two 
distinct ways the eternity of human life and of 
the world about us did not have so vital an in- 
fluence upon English poetry as did the opening 
of a world of moral beauty, its presence is never- 
theless indicative of the strong hold which Pla- 
tonism had upon some of the finest poetic minds 
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in 
England. Even when these poets were writing 
from the fulness of their own personal experi- 
ence, it was in the moulds of Platonic philoso- 
phy that their thought was cast. 

The elements of Platonism, then, that enter 
into the English poetry of the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries, have their source in the 
dialogues of Plato and the u Enneads" of Ploti- 
nus. The body of this teaching — its aesthetics, 
its metaphysics, and its ethics — was seen by the 
poets in its relation to Christian doctrine and 
to the passion of romantic love. The more 
permanent results for good are found in the 
fusion of Platonism with the ideals of Christian 
living and with its longing for perfection. If 
one passage in Plato may adequately sum up 
the teaching of Platonism most influential in 



220 PLATONISM IN ENGLISH POETRY 

English poetry, it is the passage in " Phsedrus " 
in which the beauty of wisdom is taught 
("Phsedrus," 250). 

But beauty in its stricter import is a thing 
known to the sense, and is carried over into the 
moral world only to indicate the value of moral 
ideas. Plato recognized this ; and in this con- 
nection it is significant that in the part of 
" Phsedrus," where he speaks of the loveliness 
of wisdom, he is aware of the power of pure 
beauty. "But of beauty," he says, "I repeat 
again that we saw her there [in the ideal world] 
shining in company with the celestial forms; 
and coming to earth we find her here too, shin- 
ing in clearness through the clearest aperture of 
sense. For sight is the most piercing of our 
bodily senses ; though not by that is wisdom 
seen ; her loveliness would have been transport- 
ing if there had been a visible image of her, 
and the other ideas, if they had visible counter- 
parts, would be equally lovely. But this is the 
privilege of beauty, that being the loveliest she 
is also the most palpable to sight" (250). 

Spenser was the poet who caught the spirit 
of this teaching. Pastorella's beauty is pre- 
sented not as Una's, the beauty of wisdom, nor 



GOD AND THE SOUL 221 

as Britomart's, the beauty of the inward purity 
of womanhood ; but it is a beauty of pure form. 

" And soothly sure she was full f ayre of face, 
And perfectly well shapt in every lim, 
Which she did more augment with modest grace, 
And comely carriage of her count'nance trim, 
That all the rest like lesser lamps did dim." 

(VI. ix. 9.) 

And yet as she stands on the little hillock she 
is encompassed with a cloud of glory. 

" Upon a litle hillocke she was placed 
Higher then all the rest, and round about 
Environ'd with a girland, goodly graced, 
Of lovely lasses, and them all without 
The lustie shepheard swaynes sate in a rout ; 
The which did pype and sing her prayses dew, 
And oft re Joyce, and oft for wonder shout, 
As if some miracle of heavenly hew 
Were downe to them descended in that earthly vew." 

(VI. ix. 8.) 

They saw in the object before their eyes the 
idea of beauty in earthly form. The miracle 
is no more and no less than this ; it is " the 
privilege of beauty, that being the loveliest she 
is also the most palpable to sight." 



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INDEX 



Absence, effect of, in love, 143, 
144, 145, 146, 148. 

Acrasia, a type of sensual 
beauty, 20; captured by 
Guy on, 21. 

Adam, 43, 44, 83. 

Amavia, 24. 

" Anatomy of the World, An," 
162, 165. 

"Answer to the Platonicks," 
162. 

" Anti-monopsychia," 194, 196. 

" Anti-Platonick " (Cleve- 
land's), 162. 

" Anti-Platonick " (Daniel's), 
159. 

' ' Anti-psychopanny chia , ' ' 194, 
195. 

"Apology for Smectymnuus, 
An," 47. 

"Arcadia," 66. 

Archimago, 14. 

apeT-fj, identification of Una 
with, 2. 

Ariosto, 26, 39. 

Arthegal, his reverence for 
Britomart, 35, 37, 38, 40 ; his 
training in justice, 28. 

Arthur, as heavenly grace, 3, 
62 ; his relation to the Red 
Cross Knight, 62 ; his func- 
tion in scheme of "Faerie 
Queene," 62. 
Astraea, 27. 



"Barriers, The," 125. 
Baxter, 92. 

Beauty, in Ficino, 109, 112, 113, 
114 ; in Plato, 34, 35, 220 ; in 
Milton, 41 ; in Spenser, 35, 
38, 41, 109, 111, 112, 113, 220, 
221. 

of beloved, its relation to 
absolute beauty, in George 
Daniel, 131 ; in Ficino, 115, 
in Shakespeare, 128, 134, 135 ; 
in Spenser, 32-34, 115, 130, 
136. 
earthly, 79, 80. 

heavenly, a fundamental doc- 
trine of Platonism, 1, 103 ; 
identified as wisdom, 73, as 
beauty of intelligible world, 
76. 
"Beauty," 86. 
Beelzebub, 58. 
Being, true, 98. 
Belphoebe, 5. 
Bower of Bliss, 21. 
Boyle, Robert, 158. 
Bradamante, 39. 
Britomart, 35, 36-38. 

"Caelica,"138. 

Calidore, 46. 

"Cantos of Mutabilitie," 217. 

Carew, Thomas, 158. 

Cartwright, William, 162. 

Charles I, 156. 



229 



230 



INDEX 



Charleton, Walter, 157. 

Chastity, Milton's idea of, 47, 
48, 54, 55, 56. 

Christ, mystical love of, 92, 93, 
94, 95, 96, 97, 99 ; as true 
being, 98 ; Milton's idea of, 
180, 181. 

"Christ's Triumph after 
Death," 100-103. 

Cleveland, John, 161, 162. 

" Colin Clouts Come Home 
Againe," 122. 

" Commentarium in Conviv- 
ium," on love, 107, 108, 115, 
116, 121 ; on beauty, 109, 110, 
112, 113, 114; its interpreta- 
tion of Plato, 140. 

"Comus," effect of sensuality 
on soul taught in, 49 ; chastity 
in, 48, 49, 56; doctrine of 
grace in, 63, 64; parallelism 
with " Phsedo," 49, n. 1. 

Comus, his attempts on The 
Lady, 51-54 ; his character, 53. 

" Corruption," 205, 206. 

" Court Platonicke," 159. 

Cowley, Abraham, 161, 162. 

Craig, Alexander, 138. 

Crashaw, Richard, 97, 99, 138. 

Daniel, George, 131, 158. 
Daniel, Samuel, 138. 
D'Avenant, William, 156. 
Diodati, Charles, 41. 
Donne, John, mysticism in, 

94; love in, 141, 144, 145, 149, 

151, 152, 153, 154; his idea of 

woman, 163, 164, 165. 
Drayton, Michael, 125, 138. 
" Dream, The," 153. 
Drummond, William, his idea 

of God, 174, 175, 176, 183; 



his idea of love, 82, 88, 132 ; 
his idea of heavenly love, 76, 
81; appeal of Platonism to, 
76 ; his idea of happiness, 86 ; 
his idea of rest, 87. 

Dryden, John, 165. 

Duessa, 66. 

" Ecstacy, The," 141. 

Elissa, 22. 

' ' Enneads, ' ' see under Plotinus. 

" Epithalamion," 31, 32, 33. 

" Epithalamy," 162. 

"Epode," 151. 

Eve, 44, 45. 

"Faerie Queene," Christianity 
and Platonic idealism in, 1; 
its teaching on holiness, 1 ; 
its teaching on temperance, 
see under Guyon; Platonic 
ethics in, 26, 39; its alle- 
gorical scheme, 26 ; its unity, 
29, 30; beauty of mind in, 
33 ; function of grace in, 62, 
63. 

"Fever, A," 164. 

Ficino, see under "Commen- 
tarium in Convivium." 

Fidelia, 3. 

Fletcher, Giles, 100, 101, 102, 
103. 

Fletcher, Phineas, 83, 97. 

Florimell, 66. 

"Forerunners, The," 90. 

"Friendship in Absence," 161. 

Furor, 16. 

" Garden of Adonis," 213-216. 
God, as lover of His own beauty, 

68, 69 ; as The Good, 70, 86 ; 

union of soul with, 100-103; 



INDEX 



231 



as "Idea Beatificall," 102; 
as source of beauty, 109, 
180; as Creator, 110; and 
the three Platonian hypos- 
tases, 172; as king, 174, 175, 
176; as philosophical prin- 
ciple, 176-178. 

Good, The, 169. 

" Gorgias," on temperance, 
24. 

Grace, doctrine of, its connec- 
tion with ideal of holiness, 
61-63; its connection with 
ideal of chastity, 63, 64; its 
connection with ideal of tem- 
perance, 62, 63; represented 
by Arthur, 62. 

Greville, Fulke, 138. 

Guyon, his adventures, 13; 
his struggles with wrath, 14- 
18 ; his struggles with sensual 
desire, 18-21; character of 
his life, 24; his praise of 
beauty of mind, 34; his 
relation to Arthur, 62. 

Habington, William, 147. 

Heaven, 92. 

Henrietta, Maria, 156, 157. 

Herbert, Edward, Lord Her- 
bert, 146, 159. 

Herbert, George, 71, 89, 90, 93. 

Hey wood, Thomas, 156. 

Holiness, Platonism and, 10 ; 
its connection with the doc- 
trine of grace, 62. 

Holy Spirit, identified with 
Psyche, 170. 

Howell, James, 155, 156, 157. 

Hudibras, 22. 

"Hymn of Fairest Fair, An," 
174-179, 183, 184. 



" Hymne in Honour of Beautie, 

An," 106, 109-117,118. 
"Hymne in Honour of Love, 

An," 105, 107, 108, 118, 121. 
"Hymne of Heavenly Love," 

68, 69, 73, 74, 75, 76, 95, 96. 
"Hymne of Heavenly Beautie," 

185, 186. 
"Hymne of True Happiness, 

An," 86. 
Hypostases, the Plotinian, 167, 

176, 177. 

Idea, Platonic notion of, 95 ; 

connection with mysticism, 

95, 101 ; term used as title, 

138. 
" Idea Beatificall," 102. 
Intellect, The, identified with 

God, 175 ; defined, 170, 180 ; 

identified with Christ, 170. 
Intelligible world, 77, 78, 81. 
"In the Glorious Epiphanie of 

Our Lord God," 97-99. 
Ithuriel, 59. 

Jonson, 122, 123, 151. 

"Jordan," 91. 

Joy, in religious experience, 
85 ; and the beatific vision, 
88. 

Justice, Spenser's conception 
of, 27, 28 ; Plato's conception, 
28; identical with temper- 
ance, 28. 

Lady, The, in " Comus," effect 

of spells of Comus on, 53 ; 

her response to Comus, 54 ; 

her conception of chastity, 

54, 56. 
Linche, Richard, 138. 



232 



INDEX 



Love, nativity of the god of, 
120, 121, 122, 123, 124 ; treat- 
ment of, in Donne, 149-151, 
152-155 ; in Drayton, 125, 
126 ; in Ficino, 107, 108, 115, 
116 ; in Habington, 147 ; in 
Jonson, 123, 124, 125, 151 ; 
in Milton, 41, 47, 82, 83 ; in 
Plato, 34, 35, 120 ; in Spenser, 
34, 107-109, 115-118, 120, 122 ; 
in Vaughan, 132, 133. 
earthly, 83, 88. 

heavenly, defined, 67, 72, 73, 
84 ; in Spenser, 75 ; in Drum- 
mond, 81. 
Platonic, its rise at court, 
155, 156 ; defined, 155, 156, 
160 ; ridiculed, 156, 157 ; 
described Lord Herbert, 
159, 160 ; in Stanley, 158 ; 
in Vaughan, 158 ; its immo- 
rality, 158. 

"Love," 71. 

"Love Freed from Ignorance 
and Folly," 124, 125. 

Lovelace, Richard, 161. 

"Love's Growth," 152. 

"Love's Innocence," 158. 

" Love's Mistress or the Queen's 
Masque," 156. 

" Love's Triumph through 
Callipolis," 123, 124. 

Mammon, 19. 

Margaret of Valois, 156, 

157. 
" Masque of Beauty, The," 

122, 123. 
Matter, in Plato, 211, 215; in 

Plotinus, 210, 211, 215; in 

Spenser, 212. 
Mean, the Aristotelean doctrine 



of the, described, 21, 22; in 
Spenser, 22, 23. 

Milton, John, his notion of 
woman, 40, 41, 44; his treat- 
ment of Eve, 44, 45; his love 
of beauty, 41, 44, 64, 65; his 
debt to Platonic philosophy, 
47; his idealism, 47, 48, 55, 
57, 61 ; his conception of sin, 
49, 57, 58 ; hold of Platonism 
on, 40, 47, 55, 56, 57, 61, 64, 
65; his idea of chastity, 47, 
48, 54, 55 ; doctrine of grace 
in, 63, 64; his idea of beauty, 
64; his idea of love, 82, 83; 
his idea of God, 180; his idea 
of Christ, 180. 

More, Henry, mysticism in, 
99, 196, 199; his idea of the 
Trinity, 168, 173; his idea of 
soul, 187-193; his idea of 
Christ, 170; his idea of the 
Holy Spirit, 170-174 ; religious 
feeling in, 182, 201 ; his argu- 
ment for immortality, 187- 
193, hold of Platonism on, 
193, 202 ; on innate ideas, 195. 

Mysticism, erotic, defined, 92, 
93 ; in George Herbert, 93 ; in 
Donne, 94; its connection 
with Platonism, 95; relation 
of love of Christ to, 95-103. 

"Negative Love," 153-155. 
" Nicomachean Ethics," 22. 
" No Platonique Love," 162. 
Norris, John, 86, 87, 89, 157. 

One, The, 153, 169, 179. 
"Orlando Furioso," 38, 39. 

Palmer, The, 17, 20, 21, 25. 
" Paradise Lost," 49, 58. 



INDEX? 



233 



" Paradise Regained," 42. 

Pastorella, 46. 

Petrarchism, defined, 105, 126; 
influence of Platonism on, 
105, 127. 

Perissa, 22. 

"Phaedo," on the function of 
philosophy, 8 ; on effect of 
sense knowledge on soul, 48, 
49 n. 1, 50, 55; on the super- 
sensible world, 77, 78, 81 n. 1. 

Phaedria, 18. 

"Phaedrus," on the beauty of 
wisdom, 4, 127 ; on love, 8, 
34, 35 ; on beauty of virtue, 
4, 127, 220 ; on reminiscence, 

11, 57, 203, 206, 207 ; on 
sight of true beauty, 57 ; on 
beauty, 220. 

"Philebus," on goodness, 61. 

" Piscatorie Eclogues," 83. 

"Platonick, The," 161. 

"Platonic Elegy, A," 143. 

"Platonic Love" (Ayres's), 
161 ; (Aytoun's) 161. 

"Platonick Love (Cowley's), 
162; (Cleveland's), 162; 
(Lord Herbert's) , 159, 160. 

"Platonic Lovers," 156. 

Platonism, fundamental prin- 
ciple of, 1, 3, 30 ; its relation 
to ideal of holiness, 10 ; its 
part in religious experience, 

12, 71, 72, 85, 91, 92, 181, 183 ; 
its relation to ethics of 
"Faerie Queene," 26, 30 ; its 
connection with doctrine of 
grace, 61 ; its relation to 
doctrine of heavenly love, 
67, 68 ; its appeal to sense of 
beauty, 85 ; its influence on 
erotic mysticism, 95-104 ; its 



influence on love poetry, 104 ; 
its relation to morality of 
love, 136, 137, 138 ; its in- 
fluence on discussion of love, 
140, 141 ; its three hyposta- 
ses, 167 ; its effect on theol- 
ogy, 167; its attraction for 
the religious mind, 183, 193, 
194, 201, 202, 216, 218, 219. 
Italian, appeal of, to Spenser, 
117, 118 ; its aesthetic theory, 
139; its debt to Plotinus, 
140 ; its relation to Plato, 
140 ; its debt to Ficino, 140. 

Plotinus, " Enneads " of, on the 
intelligible world, 77 ; on The 
Good, 153, 154, 169, 181; on 
the hypostases, 167 ; on soul, 
170, 171; on intellect, 170; on 
The One, 176, 177, 181, 194 ; on 
inter-relation of the hyposta- 
ses, 177, 180 ; on matter, 179, 
211 ; on immortality, 187. 

" Prayer for Mankind," 184. 

" Prospect," 87. 

" Psychathanasia," idea of 
creation in, 70 ; mysticism in, 
99, 194; immortality in, 187- 
193; The One in, 197, 198, 
199. 

Psyche, 170, 171, 172. 

" Psychozoia," idea of the 
Trinity in, 168; religious 
feeling in, 183. 

" Pure Platonicke," 159. 

" Purple Island," 97. 

Pyrochles, 17, 18. 

Randolph, Thomas, 143. 

Red Cross Knight, his sight of 
Una's beauty, 7, 9, 10, 11 ; on 
Mount of Contemplation, 8, 



234 



INDEX 



9, 10, 11, 62; training in 
House of Holiness, 10; 
slandered, 14; character of, 
15; Arthur's relation to, 62. 

" Republic," on the good, 8 ; on 
temperance, 13, 14, 28; on 
principles within soul, 13; 
on justice, 28; on imitative 
art, 91 ft. 1 ; on truth and 
opinion, 125. 

Reminiscence, theory of, in 
Vaughan, 203, 204-206, 207, 
208; in Plato, 203, 206. 

" Retreat, The," 203, 204, 206. 

Ruggiero, 39. 

Sans Loy, 23. 

Satan, his love of beauty, 42, 

43-46; his sight of Eden, 43; 

contemplating Adam and 

Eve, 43, 44, 46 ; his regret for 

lost beauty, 58, 59, 60. 
Satyrane, 3. 
Sedley, Charles, 161. 
" Seraphick Love," 89. 
Shakespeare, 128, 129, 134, 135. 
Sidney, Algernon, 157. 
Sidney, Philip, on beauty of 

virtue, 66 ; on heavenly love, 

84, 85 ; on Stella and virtue, 

127; on Plato, 137. 
Song — " If you refuse me 

once," 161. 
Song II — "It Autumn was, 

and on our hemisphere," 76, 

77, 79-81, 81 n. 1. 
Song, " To a Lady," 158. 
Song, "To Amoret," 133. 
<ro<t>la, Una identified with, 2. 
<rw<ppoavvri, Plato's idea of, 12. 
Soul, three principles in the, 

13; effect of sensuous expe- 



rience on the, 48, 50, 51 ; its 
self-sufficiency, 61; its union 
with God, 89, 100-103; its 
formative energy, 113, 114; 
union of, in love, 141, 143; 
defined, 187, 192, 193; where 
found, 188; a self-moving 
substance, 188; immortality 
of, 189, 190, 191, 192; its 
identity after death, 195, 196 ; 
universal, identified with 
woman, 164 ; defined, 170, 171. 

" Soul's Joy," 144. 

Spenser, Edmund, Platonism 
in, 3, 5, 7, 21, 22, 31, 35, 39, 
117, 218, 220; his idea of 
beauty, 4, 32, 33, 65, 66 ; his 
idea of justice, 27; his idea 
of temperance, 23, 24, 25 ; his 
idea of virtue, 27, 29; his 
idea of a gentleman, 29; 
his idea of love, 31, 108; his 
idea of heavenly love, 75; 
his aesthetics, 109-117; iden- 
tifies beloved with idea of 
beauty, 130, 136; on his 
hymns, 139; his idea of 
matter, 212 ; his world weari- 
ness, 216. 

Stanley, Thomas, 158. 

Suckling, John, 161. 

Sylvanus, 6. 

"Symposium," on wisdom, 8; 
its dialectic 8, 75 ; on beauty 
of mind, 31; on nativity of 
love, 68, 120 ; interpreted by 
Ficino, 107, 140; on gener- 
ation and immortality, 119, 
120. 

" Teares on the Death of 

Moeliades," 87, 88. 



INDEX 



235 



Temperance, Plato's idea of, 
12, 13, 14, 23 ; Spenser's idea 
of, 23, 24, 25; and justice, 28; 
connection with heavenly 
grace, 62. 

"Temple of Love," 156. 

" Theologia Germanica," 168. 

Ovixbs, 13. 

" Timseus," on creation, 70; 
on Creator, 110; on flux, 
211, 212. 

" To Amoret. Walking in a 
Starry Evening," 132. 

"To Cinthia, Converted," 159. 

" To Cinthia, coying it," 159. 

"To Cloris, a Rapture," 161. 

" To Lucasta, Going beyond 
the Seas," 161. 

" To my Mistress in Absence," 
161. 

" To the Countess of Hunting- 
don," 149, 151, 163. 

' ' To the Platonicke Pretender, ' ' 
159. 

" To the World. The Perfec- 
tion of Love." 147. 

Trinity, The, identified with 
Plotinian hypostases, 168- 
174 ; its unity, 176. 

Una, identified with <ro(pla, and 
dper-fj, 2 ; identified with 
truth, 2, 3 ; guides Red Cross 
Knight to Fidelia's school, 



3 ; presented as true beauty, 
3-10. 

" Urania," 88. 

"Valediction Forbidding 
Mourning," 145. 

Vaughan, Henry, his idea 
of love, 132, 133, 148 ; his 
idea of Platonic love, 158 ; 
his idea of preexistence, 
203. 

Virtue, Plato's idea of, 27 ; a 
manifold of graces, 27 ; its 
beauty, 127 ; identified with 
woman, 163. 

Vision, beatific, described as 
rest, 87 ; as joy, 88. 

Wisdom, the highest beauty, 

4 ; beauty of, 4, 10 ; seen only 
by soul, 8 ; sight of, quicken- 
ing imagination, 10, 11 ; iden- 
tified with heavenly beauty, 
73; subject of "Hymne of 
Heavenly Beautie," 73, 74. 

"Wishes, The," 138. 

"World, The," 206, 207, 208, 210. 

Woman, her inward beauty, 
31 ; attraction of, 162 ; iden- 
tified as virtue, 163 ; as uni- 
versal soul, 164. 

Zephon, 59, 60. 



